edward hodges baily·1788 - 1867

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use the down arrow to view option ========================= link to further material not in books ========================= ---------- section b ---------- bacon, john [BWM] baily, edward hodges [BWM] baker, sir herbert [Rem] behnes, william [BWM] bell, john [BWM] belsky, franta [BWM] binyon, laurence [Rem] blomfield, sir reginald [Rem] blunden, edmund [Rem] boehm, sir edgar [BWM] brock, sir thomas [BWM] butler, james [BWM] burdett-coutts, william [Rem] burnet, sir john james [Rem] ========================= ---------- section c ---------- chantrey, sir francis [BWM] churchill, sir winston [Rem] cockerell, professor charles [BWM] comper, sir ninian [BWM] ========================= ---------- section d ---------- derwent wood, professor francis [Rem] dick, sir william reid [BWM] drury, alfred [BWM] ========================= ---------- section e ---------- epstein, sir jacob [BWM] ========================= ---------- section f ---------- flaxman, professor john [BWM] frampton, sir george [BWM] ========================= ---------- section g ---------- gill, eric [BWM] gleichen, count victor [BWM] goscombe john, sir william [BWM] gotto, captain basil [BWM] ========================= ---------- section h ---------- haig, field marshall earl douglas [Rem] hepworth, philip [Rem] holden, charles [Rem] hutton, john [Rem] ========================= ---------- section j ---------- jackson, philip [BWM] jagger, charles sargeant [Rem] jones, captain adrian [BWM] ========================= ---------- section k ---------- kennington, eric [BWM] kenyon, colonel sir frederic [Rem] kipling, joseph rudyard [Rem] ========================= ---------- section l ---------- lafontaine, colonel cart de [Rem] lantéri, professor édouard [BWM] ledward, professor gilbert [BWM] lewis, sir robert [Rem] lloyd george, earl dwyfor - om [Rem] lorimer, sir robert [Rem] lutyens, sir edwin - om [Rem] ========================= ---------- section m ---------- mackenall, sir bertram [BWM] mallock, vivien [BWM] marochetti, baron carlo [BWM] marsh, sir edward howard [Rem] maufe, sir edward [Rem] mcmillan, william [BWM] melchett, lord [Rem] millington, major tasman [Rem] mills, john w [BWM] mond, sir alfred [Rem] ========================= ---------- section n ---------- nash, john [BWM] nightingale, florence - om [Rem] ========================= ---------- section 0 ---------- orpen, sir william [Rem] owen, wilfred [Rem] ========================= ---------- section p ---------- pegram, henry alfred [BWM] poole, henry [Rem] ========================= ---------- section r ---------- reid dick, sir william [BWM] roberts-jones, ivor [BWM] rosenburg, isaac [Rem] ========================= ---------- section s ---------- sassoon, siegfried [Rem] shepheard, sir peter [Rem] singer sargent, john [Rem] soissons, louis de [Rem] spencer, sir stanley [BWM] ========================= ---------- section t ---------- thornycroft, sir (william) hamo [BWM] toft, albert [BWM] turner, alfred [BWM] tweed, john [BWM] ========================= ---------- section w ---------- wade, george [BWM] ware, major general sir fabian [Rem] webb, sir aston [BWM] westmacott, sir richard [BWM] wheeler, sir charles [BWM] winter, faith [BWM] wood, francis derwent [BWM] worthington, sir hubert [Rem]

Edward Hodges Baily was born at Bristol in March 1788, son of a carver of figureheads for ships. ‘He was sent to grammar school, but showed the common artistic repugnance to the regular studies. Young Baily would carve strange portraits of his schoolfellows, and showed no capacity for ordinary school work. At fourteen he entered a merchant's office, and remained there for two years. During this time he obtained some instruction from a modeller in wax, and greatly improved his opportunity.

“ He was sent to grammar school, but showed the common artistic repugnance to the regular studies. Young Baily would carve strange portraits of his schoolfellows, and showed no capacity for ordinary school work”

Soon he forsook commerce, and began taking portraits in wax. By virtue of some studies which he made from the antique, he obtained an introduction to Flaxman, in whose studio, in 1807, he became a pupil, and there he remained for seven years. In 1809 he entered the Academy Schools, gaining silver and gold medals in quick succession.' In 1811 he won the RA Gold Medal for his Hercules Restoring Alcestis to Admetus. He exhibited Apollo Discharging his Arrows Against the Greeks in 1817 and was elected ARA. He was elected RA in 1821 and his diploma work was the bust John Flaxman.

A prolific sculptor, Baily produced a substantial body of high quality work. His output would consist of groups, portrait busts, statues and memorial tablets. In 1825 he executed the frieze for the portico of the Masonic Hall in Bristol and in 1826 the relief for General Picton's Monument at Carmarthen.

The figure that established his reputation was Eve at the Fountain for Bristol Art Gallery exhibited at the RA in 1818, (a copy is in the Glyptotek, Copenhagen). His statues included: Jenner (1825) Gloucester Cathedral, the gilded Minerva for the Athenæum (1830), Jebb, Bishop of Limerick (1836) Limerick Cathedral. For St Paul's Cathedral in white marble Earl St Vincent (1826), Admiral Sir Pultney Malcolm (1838), General Sir William Ponsonby all of which stand in the cafeteria in the crypt. He sculpted Eve, Listening to the Voice (1842) at Bethnal Green Museum, Duke of Sussex (1846) in the Freemasons' Hall, Professor Owen (1846) Royal College of Surgeons, Chief Justice Tindall (1847) Chelmsford, Flaxman (1849) University College, London, Sleeping Girl (1850) Bristol Art Gallery, Alderman Donkin (1851) Newcastle Public Library, Joan Lever (1851) Guy's Hospital, Sir Robert Peel (1852) Old Market Place, Bury, The Morning Star (1854) Mansion House, London, The Circassian Slave (1855) in the Royal Collection, Charles James Fox and Earl Mansfield (1857) in the Palace of Westminster and Genius (1858) at the Mansion House, (destroyed by enemy action 29 November 1940).

In 1831 Baily and Westmacott jointly wrote to HM Treasury protesting that fees for sculpture commissioned by the Government that they had carried out had not been paid: ‘the greatest part of these works have been executed nearly three years ago'. He sculpted Lord Nelson on top of Railton's column in Trafalgar Square. He designed the Doncaster Cup in 1843 and the Ascot Gold Cup in 1844. With Flaxman and Westmacott he carried out the sculpture for the Marble Arch at Buckingham Palace. He also carried out both exterior and interior work at the Palace. He executed the statues on the façade of the National Gallery. His busts included: Lord Byron (1826) Harrow School, Duke of York (1827) Freemasons' Hall, Thomas Campbell (1827) Glasgow Art Gallery, Michael Faraday (1830) University Museum, Oxford and Lord George Bentinck (1842) at the Russell-Cotes Museum, Bournemouth.

Facsimiles of his most popular works were commissioned by the Crystal Palace Company, these included JMW Turner, George Stephenson, Earl of Egremont, and Apollo. Baily retired in 1863, he was soon embarrassed by his financial extravagance and by application was granted a pension by the RA. He died at Holloway, London on 22 May 1867 and his grave can be found in Highgate Cemetery.

‘The years of his prolonged life were actively passed in upholding the dignity and purity of his art, and in its annals his name must always be referred to as one of the most successful sculptors of the nineteenth century.' There is a drawing of him by Charles Hutton Lear and a medallion by Benjamin Wyon in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.