Joseph Durham ARA, FSA
Born 1814
Died 27 October 1877
Active: 1835 - 1877
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor, medallist
Born in London. Durham was apprenticed to the sculptor John Francis and then worked in the studio of E. H. Baily. From 1835 he began exhibiting portrait busts and medallions at the Royal Academy. Durham's first great success was a his bust of the Swedish opera singer, Jenny Lind in 1848. However he was primarily known for sculptures of genre, or modern-life, works featuring children.
Durham had a large circle of friends including Samuel Carter Hall, editor of the Art Journal and Martin Farquhar Tupper, writer. He was a member of an informal antiquarian society called the Noviomagians and in 1853 elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Durham remained unmarried. He died of consumption after a long illness at 21 Devonshire Street, Portland Place, London.
Wealth at death: £2,000 0s. 0d.
Probate resworn July 1878, his effects were then valued at under £5,000.
Probate date: 10 November 1877
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. Click here for more information.
The Parting of Paul and Virginia
Euclid
1860 (Circa)
George Stephenson
1860 (Circa)
L'Allegro
1851
Il Penseroso
1851
The model for a statue, illustrative of the fate of Genius
1855 (Presumed)
A sleeping child, in marble - Alice Evelyn, infant daughter of Martin F. Tupper, Esq., of Albury
1855 (Presumed)
Locations
Address 26 Alfred Place Bedford Square London | View on map
1849 (Circa) - 1855
Address 50 Cambridge Street Hyde Park London | View on map
1851 (Circa)
Address 21 Devonshire Street Portland Place London NW | View on map
1856 - 1877
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at The International Exhibition, London, 1862
'Her Majesty the Queen'
Exhibited at National Exhibition of Works of Art at Leeds, 1868
'Ophelia'
Exhibited at Royal Manchester Institution, Exhibition of the Works of Modern Artists, 1874
Multiple works
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Seventh, 1855
p.52
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1835 - 1877
Exhibited 41 times (27 times from 1851), usually 3 or 5 works from 1851 and 128 works in all.
Exhibited at Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations (London), 1851
1851
Exhibited at Liverpool autumn exhibition of modern pictures: the twelfth (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), 1882
1882
Florizel Perdita (cat. no. 1586, not for sale).
Institutional and Business Connections
Elected ARA Royal Academy of Arts
8 May 1866 - 27 October 1877
Died in 1877.
Employed at Copeland (William Taylor Copeland)
Twenty of his works were reproduced by Copeland. See Copeland 'Parian Copeland's Statuary Porcelain' (2007), p. 86, noi dates are given.
Member of Institute of British Sculptors
1856 (Circa) - 1861 (Circa)
Member of council Institute of British Sculptors
1861 (Circa)
Worked with Art Union of London
1863 (Circa) - 1865 (Circa)
To reproduce 'Go to Sleep' in parian ware (issued first in 1863, further editions in 1864 and 1865)
Personal and Professional Connections
Apprenticed to John Francis
Seconder of Thomas Thornycroft
14 December 1866
'Name erased [from nominations book] at the request of the candidate'[handwritten note in Royal Academy Nominations Book; name has been struck out].
Studio assistant to Edward Hodges Baily
Either assistant or pupil
Descriptions of Practice
Listed under Sculptors Post Office London Directory, 1860 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
p. 1803
Listed under Sculptors Post Office London Directory, 1851 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
p. 1365
Sources
A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851
2009
pp. 388-94
Catalogue of the Exhibition of the Works of Modern Artists, City of Manchester Art Gallery, 1874
1874
Cat. Nos. 550, 551, pp. 52, 68
Catalogue of the National Exhibition of Works of Art at Leeds 1868
1868
Cat. Nos. 627g, 628h, 634n, 635o, p. 205
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966
2010
Name: Joseph Durham
Probate Date: 10 Nov 1877
Death Date: 27 Oct 1877
Death Place: Middlesex, England
Registry: Principal Registry
International exhibition 1862, official catalogue, fine art department
1862
List of Members: Institute of British Sculptors (or Sculptor's Institute)
2008 (Circa)
Liverpool autumn exhibition of modern pictures, 1882 Walker Art Gallery
1882
pp. 90-91.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Martin Greenwood, ‘Durham, Joseph (1814–1877)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8315, accessed 18 Oct 2009]
Oxford Natural History Museum: the Statues in the Court
2008
pp. 5-6
Parian Copeland's Statuary Porcelain
2007
p. 86.
Post Office London Directory, 1851 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
1851
p. 1365
Post Office London Directory, 1860 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
1860
p. 1803
Royal Academy of Arts Nominations for Associateship, 1866-1906
1906
See entries for 1866.
Rules of the Institute of Sculptors
1861
p. iv
The Builder, Vol. 18, 11 August 1860
11 August 1860
p. 510
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Seventh, 1855
1855
p.52
Citing this record
'Joseph Durham ARA, FSA', 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/person.php?id=msib2_1213717252, accessed 28 Jan 2023]
