British Architectural Sculpture

This book examines the collaborative process that produced the outstanding carving and sculpture on many of the most remarkable buildings of what was Britain’s greatest period of wealth and global power. Investigating the processes and methodologies behind these shared artistic endeavours, it reveals the background, education and training of the sculptors, modellers and carvers involved and discusses the relationships between architects and sculptors, the varied nature of their artistic partnerships and the interplay between the two arts in their contrasting control of space and mass.

Work by the major architects of the period, including George Gilbert Scott and Alfred Waterhouse, is discussed, as well as their relationship with architectural sculptors Farmer and Brindley. Likewise, the book examines the collaborations between John Belcher and Hamo Thorneycroft and Alfred Drury; Charles Holden and his work with Jacob Epstein and Eric Gill; and Edwin Lutyens, who worked with Derwent Wood and Charles Sergeant Jagger. The emergence and development of Modern architecture and sculpture is traced through the influences of Ruskin, Morris and the European avant-garde.

The book also details the increasing levels of cooperation between the two arts during the nineteenth century, which reached its climax in the architectural sculpture of the New Sculpture movement, resulting in the very best contemporary architects and sculptors finally working together in quite unique artistic partnerships.