William Brodie (sculptor)
Encyclopedia
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
. He was the son of John Brodie, a Banff
Banff, Aberdeenshire
Banff is a town in the Banff and Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Banff is situated on Banff Bay and faces the town of Macduff across the estuary of the River Deveron...
shipmaster, and elder brother of Alexander Brodie (1830–1867), another sculptor.
He was elected Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy
Royal Scottish Academy
The Royal Scottish Academy is a Scottish organisation that promotes contemporary Scottish art. Founded in 1826, as the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, the RSA maintains a unique position in Scotland as an independently funded institution led by eminent artists and...
(RSA) in 1857, and Royal Academician
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
in 1859 . In 1876, and until his death, he was appointed Secretary of the RSA.
When he was about six years old, his family moved to Aberdeen. William Brodie was later apprenticed to a plumber, but in his spare time studied at the Mechanic's Institute, where he amused himself by casting lead figures of well-known people. He soon began to model small medallion portraits which attracted the attention of a Mr. John Hill Burton. It was Burton who encouraged him to go to Edinburgh in 1847. Here Brodie studied for four years at the Trustees' School of Design, learning to model on a larger scale, and also executing a bust of one of his earliest patrons, Lord Jeffrey.
About 1853 he went to Rome, where he studied under Lawrence Macdonald
Lawrence Macdonald
Lawrence Macdonald was a Scottish sculptor.He was born at Findo Gask in Perthshire, Scotland.In early life he served as a mason's apprentice. Having shown an aptitude for stone carving, he became an art student at the Trustees Academy, Edinburgh...
, and it was with the latter's assistance that he modelled "Corinna
Corinna
Corinna or Korinna was an Ancient Greek poet, traditionally attributed to the 6th century BC. According to ancient sources such as Plutarch and Pausanias, she came from Tanagra in Boeotia, where she was a teacher and rival to the better-known Theban poet Pindar...
, the Lyric Muse", a work which Copeland
William Taylor Copeland
William Taylor Copeland, MP, Alderman was a British businessman and politician who served as Lord Mayor of London and a Member of Parliament.- Family and business :...
reproduced in miniature in "Parian" four years later.
In 1875 he made the group of "A Peer and His Lady Doing Homage" for the Prince Consort Memorial in Edenburgh.
Brodie exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1850–1881, and at the Royal Scottish Academy, 1847–1881; at the Great Exhibition of 1851 he showed a group of "Little Nell and Her Grandfather". He died 30 October 1881.