Art Union of London
Foundation date: 1837
Function: Promotion of art, a lottery
Policy: Art Unions were subscription lotteries that awarded art as prizes. An annual ballot was held in which members' tickets (usually one guinea each) were drawn from a drum and prizes were allotted accordingly. Depending on the rules of the union, prize winners were either awarded a specific work or could select from a specified exhibition (some unions offered a mixture of both options). Many unions held an annual exhibition of prize winner's prizes which was open to subscribers and members of the public.
Meeting schedule: annual
History or description: The Art Union of London was founded later than those in Edinburgh and Liverpool. However it was the most important for sculpture because it commissioned medals and regularly included sculpture in its annual prizes. In 1841 the Art Union of London decided to promote medal engraving by issuing an annual medal depicting an artist or architect to be offered as one of the annual prizes.
A year later, the Union began to offer bronze statuettes as prizes. However these were expensive and so in the mid-1840s the organisers began to explore reproducing sculpture in the new unglazed porcelain, known as parian ware or statuary porcelain, with Copeland and Garrett, the pottery manufacturers. John Gibson's 'Narcissus' was the first sculpture to be issued in an edition of fifty by Copeland's in 1845 and offered as a prize by the Union in 1846.
The success of this venture led the Art Union to organise a competition for works that would be reproduced on a small scale in parian (1846). The small statuettes became an annual feature of the Art Union of London prizes until the association's demise in the early 1900s.
Works
Dates are usually the year a work was exhibited so may differ from date of production.
New entries have been made each time a work was exhibited due to a lack of evidence about the state, medium or edition shown.
Commissioned Tazza: Hercules and the Hesperides
1851 (Circa)
Commissioned Chastity
1860 (Circa)
Commissioned Caractacus
1860 (Circa)
Exhibited Tazza
1851
At the Great Exhibition of all Nations as an example of the small-scale sculptures it offered as a prize in the annual ballot for subscribers
Exhibited Innocence
1851
At the Great Exhibition of all Nations as an example of the small-scale sculptures it offered as a prize in the annual ballot for subscribers
Exhibited Narcissus
1851
At the Great Exhibition of all Nations as an example of the small-scale sculptures it offered as a prize in the annual ballot for subscribers
Exhibited The Dancing Girl Reposing
1851
At the Great Exhibition of all Nations as an example of the small-scale sculptures it offered as a prize in the annual ballot for subscribers
Exhibitions, Courses, Meetings and other Events
Organized Art Union of London Statuette Competition, 1851
Organized Art Union of London Competition, 1860
Institutional and Business Connections
Commissioned Copeland (William Taylor Copeland)
1845 (Circa) - 1900 (Circa)
The Art Union commissioned or bought numerous parian statuettes from Copeland's between these dates
Associated People
Commissioned Edward William Wyon
On many occasions and in 1856 worked with Wyon to reproduce 'Stepping Stones' in parian (reissued in 1857 and 1858) and again in 1874 to reproduce 'Net Mending' in parian
Commissioned George T. Morgan
1873 (Circa) - 1878
Executed a number of commissions for medals from the Art Union which were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1873, 1874, 1876 and 1878
Worked with John Gibson
1846 (Circa) - 1860 (Circa)
To reproduce 'Narcissus' (editions in 1846, 1849 and 1850) and 'Venus and Cupid' (editions in 1858 and 1860) in parian ware
Worked with John Henry Foley
1847 (Circa) - 1850 (Circa)
To reproduce 'Innocence' in parian ware (issued first in 1847, further edition in 1850)
Worked with William Calder Marshall
1848 (Circa) - 1857 (Circa)
To reproduce 'Dancing Girl Reposing' in parian ware (issued first in 1848, further editions annually between 1850-57)
Worked with Joseph Durham
1863 (Circa) - 1865 (Circa)
To reproduce 'Go to Sleep' in parian ware (issued first in 1863, further editions in 1864 and 1865)
Worked with Morton Andrew Edwards
1864 (Circa) - 1866 (Circa)
To reproduce bust of 'HRH Prince of Wales' in parian ware (issued first in 1864, further editions in 1865 and 1866)
Worked with Charles Bell Birch
1867 (Circa)
To reproduce 'Wood Nymph' in parian ware
Worked with Mary Thornycroft
1871 (Circa) - 1879 (Circa)
To reproduce 'HRH Princess Loiuse' (1871) and 'Princess Alice' (1879) in parian ware
Worked with Edward Bowring Stephens
1879 (Circa)
To reproduce 'Little Boat Builder' in parian ware
Sources
The Builder, Vol. 18, 11 August 1860
11 August 1860
pp. 509-510
The Builder, Vol. 18, 25 August 1860
25 August 1860
The Builder, Vol. IX, No. 413, 4 January 1851
4 January 1851
p. 7
The Builder, Vol. IX, No. 441, 19 July 1851
19 July 1851
p. 446
The Parian Phenomenon: A Survey of Victorian Parian Porcelain Statuary and Busts
1989
pp. 26-39
Citing this record
'Art Union of London', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib7_1206541620, accessed 09 Jun 2023]
