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Title:
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Sir James Stephen
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Artist: |
Baron Carlo Marochetti
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Sir James Stephen
(1789-1859) was the son of the principal lawyer associated with the
abolitionist movement. His stepmother was the sister of William Wilberforce. He
himself was called to the bar in 1811. He became increasingly involved with
colonial legislation, progressing from counsel to the Colonial Office, to
assistant under-secretary for the Colonies (1834), and Undersecretary of State
for the Colonies (1836). He was said to have "literally ruled the colonial
empire". On retirement from the civil service, he became Regius Professor
of Modern History at Cambridge University.
This bust
executed a year before its subject's death, was presented to the National
Portrait Gallery in 1896 by the sitter's grandson, Sir Herbert Stephen. In the
NPG's documentation is a copy of a letter, which came with it, addressed by Sir
James Stephen to his fellow civil servant, the poet Sir Henry Taylor. The
letter, dated 17 Aug. 1858, contains the following: "I have just been
released from attendance on the Baron Marochetti, who undertook to exhibit me
in marble. He began his work by assuring me that he never flattered, and he has
certainly ended it by being as good as his word. Now, to pay a man more than
could maintain a hard-working curate a whole year for twelve hours' work in moulding one's visage, and to get no flattery
after all, is really to burn one of Mr Ruskin's 'Lamps of Truth' at a very high
cost". The marble bust was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1859.
Marochetti also
executed a bust of Stephen's future daughter-in-law, Julia Jackson (see entry
for this under Julia Stephen), the mother of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell.
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Material(s): |
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Medium: |
Unassigned |
Finish: |
- |
Technique: |
Carved |
Genre: |
Portrait Bust
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Location: |
London, National Portrait Gallery, , ,
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Colours: |
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Year: |
1858 |
Height: |
0.74 metres |
Width: |
0 metres |
Depth: |
0 metres |
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Key: |
5830 |
Acc. No.: |
5830 |
Col. No.: |
5830 |
Number of views: |
2706 |
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