- Title:
- Isambard Owen
- Object name(s):
- Sculpture
- Collection:
- Aberystwyth University, School of Art Museum & Gallery
- Material:
- Plaster, painted
- Object name:
- Sculpture
- Object number:
- S33
- Object production date:
- 1898
- Date - earliest / single:
- 1898
- Object production person:
- Sir William Goscombe John
- Person's association:
- Sculptor
- Person's biographical note:
- Sculptor. He began his working life assisting his father, a wood carver, in the restoration of Cardiff Castle. Following this he was taken on by a carver’s workshop in London in 1882. In the evenings he took classes in sculpture at the South London School of Technical Art, under the tuition of Jules Dalou (1838-1902) and William Silver Frith (1850-1924). He was talented enough to be taken on by the Royal Academy, where he worked with the sculptors Thomas Nicholls and Charles Bell Birch (1832-1893). He won the Royal Academy Gold Medal travelling scholarship in 1887. After touring, Goscombe John settled between 1890-1891 in Paris to study. Here he married Marthe Weiss, and produced his first large statue, Morpheus, which he had sent to London to be exhibited. It was a success, and he was commissioned to design and produce many monuments, statues of famous people and naturalistic figures in the coming years. Goscombe John was made a Royal Academician in 1909, knighted in 1911 and in 1912 helped to found the National Museum of Wales.
- Person's birth date:
- 1860
- Person's death date:
- 1952
- Person's forenames:
- Sir William Goscombe
- Person's place of birth:
- UK, Wales, Cardiff
- Person's place of death:
- London
- Person's surname:
- John
- Responsible department/section:
- Sculpture
- Text:
- Sir Herbert Isambard Owen (1850-1927) was born in Chepstow, the son of William George Owen who studied under Isambard Brunel. Isambard Owen graduated from Cambridge in 1872 and became a medical student in London. He became close enough friends with Joseph Edwards, sculptor, and prince Lucien Bonaparte to be named executor to both their wills. Owen was heavily involved in Welsh education and education in general, becoming Deputy Chancellor of the University of Wales, Principal of Armstrong College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol. He was also a notable member of the Society for the Utilisation of the Welsh Language. He died in Paris, 14th January 1927 and was buried in Glanadda, Bangor.
- Text reason:
- Collections online text
Persistent shareable link for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/0c4dea08-160e-3b51-9cdc-33e4c0fd8e9a
Use licence for this record: CC BY-NC
Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/0c4dea08-160e-3b51-9cdc-33e4c0fd8e9a, Aberystwyth University, School of Art Museum & Gallery, CC BY-NC
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