Bust of a Beautiful Maiden ~Holme Cardwell

Holme Cardwell

(Active 1834 – 1895) British

Bust of a Beautiful Maiden

White marble sculpture. Signed, dated Holme Cardwell, Rome 1865.

Size: H:23 in W: 16in D: 8 in.

Born in Manchester 20 May 1813. Died Rome 7 August 1895Bor. He attended the Royal Academy Schools in 1834 on the recommendation of Sir Francis Chantrey. Cardwell is said to have studied in Paris under David d’Angers for three years from 1841. During the late 1840s and early 1850s he worked in Manchester and London. Before 1856 he had returned to Rome where he remained and among the works, he created there are an imposing tomb in the Non-Catholic Cemetery to the banker Aeneas Macbean (d.1864). This tomb is described as “a very credible specimen of Mr Cardwell’s talent” in ‘Murray’s Handbook. There are few details of Cardwell’s later life but he appears to have been made an honorary member of the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts in the 1890s.

Holme Cardwell’s monumental Diana carved in Rome in 1862 recently came to auction at Sotheby’s, London, 13 December 2017, lot 41 and realised £357,000.  Holme-Cardwell also exhibited two other sculptures in the International Exhibition of that year, ‘Pan and Cupid’ and ‘Sabrina’, and the fact that these are both now in public institutions, (Pan and Cupid was given to the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1871, and Sabrina is now in the Hove museum, Sussex) is surely testament to the high esteem shown to the sculptor’s works both at the time and in the present day. He died in Rome 7 August 1895.

Museums: V&A

Gallery note: The exquisite modelling of the maidens bust and idealised beauty of her facial features embodies both the ideals of the neo-classical style and the skill of a very talented sculptor.