Durham, Joseph

Born in London in 1814, he was apprenticed to John Francis, a decorative carver. Later worked for three years in the studio of E. H. Baily, and exhibited his first piece of sculpture in the Royal Academy in 1835. He became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1866, and died, after a long illness, in London on 27 October 1877.

Between 1835 and 1878 126 pieces of sculpture by Durham were exhibited at the Royal Academy, and six at the British Institution. He was noted for his figures of boys engaged in athletic exercises.

His busts of Jenny Lind (1848) and of Queen Victoria (1856) attracted much attention. A statue by him of Sir Francis Crossley was erected at Halifax. He executed four statues for the portico of London University in Burlington Gardens. In 1858 Durham received the commission for the Memorial to the Great Exhibition of 1851, which ultimately included the electrotyped statue of Albert, Prince Consort following Albert's death in 1861. In 1863 the Memorial was erected in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at Kensington, and was moved near to Royal Albert Hall around 1890.[1] A commission from the Duke of Buccleuch, a statue of the Duke's younger brother - John Douglas Montagu Douglas Scott - was erected in Dunchurch and unveiled by the Duke in September 1867.

One of his major works was a Leander and the Syren, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1875. His statues entitled Hermione and Alastor were purchased for the Mansion House.

ISAAR(CPF)