Sir Thomas Brock (1 March 184722 August 1922) was an English sculptor and medallist, notable for the creation of several large public sculptures and monuments in Britain and abroad in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
His most famous work is the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace, London.
Biography
Brock was born on 1 March 1847 in Worcester. In 1866 he became a pupil of the sculptor John Henry Foley and also enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools, where he won a gold medal for sculpture in 1869. He met and befriended Frederic, Lord Leighton, whose emphasis on realism and naturalism in sculpture led Brock to become part of the New Sculpture movement and to develop his talent for sympathetic and realistic portraiture. It was his completion of Foley's statue of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial which first brought Brock to prominence and secured his position as an establishment sculptor. He also assisted in the casting of Lord Leighton's greatly influential 1877 sculpture An Athlete Wrestling with a Python.
Brock was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1883 and became a full member in 1891.
thumb|left|upright|Thomas Brock in his studio, 1889
Brock's group The Moment of Peril (now in the garden of Leighton House) was followed by The Genius of Poetry, at the Carlsberg Brewery in Copenhagen. A plaster model for Eve was shown at the Royal Academy in 1898; a marble version (1900) is in the collection of the Tate and Brock also cast some smaller bronze replicas and other imaginative works that mark his development. His portrait works include busts, such as those of Lord Leighton and Queen Victoria, statues, such as Sir Richard Owen and Henry Philpott, bishop of Worcester, and sepulchral monuments such as that of Lord Leighton in St Paul's Cathedral. and according to legend King George V was so moved by the excellence of the memorial that he called for a sword and knighted Brock on the spot.
From 1914 to 1919 Brock returned to the post of president of the Society of British Sculptors.
1900–1909
Other works
- Equestrian bronze A Moment of Peril, 1880, now in the collection of Tate Britain.
- Marble statue on a pedestal of Sorabjee Shapurjee Bengallee, 1898, south-east corner of the Oval, Fort, Mumbai
- Marble bust for India of Darasha Ruttonjee Chichgur, 1903, current location unknown
- Busts of Henry W. Longfellow at Grand Pre, Nova Scotia
- Busts of Michael Faraday and Frederic Leighton in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.