John Bell
Born 19 August 1811
Died 14 March 1895
Active: 1824 - 1879
Country of birth and death: England
Sculptor, modeller, medallist, stone carver, writer
Born at Hopton Hall, Hopton, Norfolk. He studied art at the Henry Sass School of Drawing, Soho (1827) and at the Royal Academy Schools (1828-32).
He was the son of Samuel Bell, landowner and solicitor and his inheritance gave him a level of independence as a practitioner. This included purchasing land in Douro Place in March 1846 and building a large house and three studios on the back of the property. That year, John married Eugenie, the only daughter of the wealthy artist, Robert Sullivan, providing further financial security.
Sometime before 1846 Bell met Henry Cole, possibly through Prince Albert who was already a patron of the sculptor. This led to a long and close association lasting till about 1870. In the 1840s Bell designed a number of items (including a clock, inkstand, knives and bread board) for Cole's production company, Felix Summerly.
Bell was active as a designer and worked in a variety of media, collaborating with several companies to reproduce his sculptures in Parian ware. In the late 1850s and early 1860s Bell gave lectures (at the Royal Society of Arts and at the South Kensington Museum) and also published a number of articles chiefly in 'Building News.'
His larger public commissions included the Wellington monument (1856, City of London Guildhall); the Crimean memorial, (marble, 1856; Woolwich); the Guards' memorial (bronze, 1859, Waterloo Place, London); and the 'America' group for the Albert Memorial (1864-71, Kensington Gardens). The latter was remodelled in teracotta by Doulton's and sent to the American Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876.
Bell retired from active practice in 1879 but continued to write until his death in 1895. He gifted a collection of fourteen works to Kensington Town Hall for which he wrote a catalogue. This group of works were destroyed by bombs during the Second World War and to an earlier loss of plaster casts of his sculptures in the fire at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, 1936.
Wealth at death: £220 14s. 10d.
Probate date: 26 April 1895
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.
Study of the Head of Lord Byron
Dorothea Startled While Bathing Her Feet in the Brook
The Heart That Bled For All Mankind
Open-Work Dome in the West Nave of the Great Exhibition Building
Memorial of the Guards, Waterloo Place, London
Purity, or Una and the Lion
1851
Dorothea, from 'Don Quixote'
1851
'The Babes in the Wood', from the English ballad
1851
Small sketched model of Wellington, between Peace and War - a memorial to the late Duke of Wellington
1855 (Presumed)
Head of Dorothea
1877 (Presumed)
£15 15s.
Angelica
1877 (Presumed)
£15 15s.
Dorothea
1877 (Presumed)
£15 15s.
Albert the Good
1877 (Presumed)
£15 15s.
Locations
Address 43 Cambridge Street London | View on map
1834 (Circa) - 1842 (Circa)
Prior to this his address was 3 Frith Street, Soho, London
Address 4 Marlborough Terrace Victoria Road London | View on map
1843 (Circa) - 1848 (Circa)
Address Villa Vigna Douro Place London | View on map
1846 - 1895
Bell also had a studio at this address (see separate record below)
Address 25 Buckingham Place Fitz. Square London | View on map
1851
Studio located at 15 Douro Place Victoria Road London W | View on map
1846 - 1895
Bell bought the land in Douro Place and built a house and three studios on the property. He lived and worked here for the remainder of his life
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Beneficiary of Turner Fund (Royal Academy of Arts), 1856-1951
1888
Listed as a recipient of the Turner Fund in 1888.
Exhibited at The International Exhibition, London, 1862
Multiple works
Exhibited at Royal Manchester Institution, Exhibition of the Works of Modern Artists, 1877
'On the Sea Shore'
Exhibited at Royal Manchester Institution, Exhibition of the Works of Modern Artists, 1876
Multiple works
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Seventh, 1855
Multiple works
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Seventh, 1855
p.52
Exhibited at Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations (London), 1851
1851
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1853 - 1879
Exhibited 39 times (1832 - 1879), average 3 works per year.
Exhibited at Exhibition of the Bristol Academy, Works of Modern Artists, The Thirty-Second, 1877
1877
Institutional and Business Connections
Advisor to Wills Brothers
1860 (Circa)
Bells advised the Wills brothers on the modelling of drinking fountains for the Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association
Associate member of The Royal West of England Academy
1876 (Presumed) - 1891
Listed as an Associate Professional Member
Member of Leeds Academy of Arts
Member of Institute of British Sculptors
Not a member in 1861, but possibly a member before or after this date
Worked with Minton and Company
Modelled figures that were reproduced in Parian, no dates are given: see Atterbury and Batkin 'Dictionary of Minton' (1990), p. 251.
Worked with Wedgwood (Josiah Wedgwood and Sons Ltd.)
Modelled figures that were reproduced in Parian, no dates are given: see Atterbury and Batkin 'Dictionary of Minton' (1990), p. 251.
Worked with Coalbrookdale Co. Limited
1847 - 1862 (Circa)
After Coalbrookdale successfully cast the 'Eagle Slayer' in cast iron (1847), Bell produced a number of designs for the company
Worked with John Marriot Blashfield
1853 (Circa) - 1854 (Circa)
Bell modelled four colossal terracotta statues for Crystal Palace, Sydenham which were cast in Blashfield's innovative muffle kilns: 'Australia', 'California', 'Birmingham' and 'Sheffield'
Worked with Doulton and Co. Limited
1874 (Circa) - 1876 (Circa)
£3000
On the reproduction in terracotta of the 11ft. tall 'America' group (Albert Memorial) to be sent as the centrepiece of the Doulton display to the American Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876. The group is said to have cost £3,000. Bell was assisted in the modelling by George Tinworth.
Personal and Professional Connections
Apprenticed Charles Stoatt
1846 - 1851 (Presumed)
Stoatt was aprenticed to Bell 'to learn the art of pointing and carving.' Bell was to provide meat, drink, lodging, wearing apparel. Stoatt was to receive payment of five shillings a week from the second year rising to fifteen shillings by the fifth year. (See Barnes (1999), p. 30) Stoatt stayed on as Bell's studio assistant (see separate relationship)
Assisted by Thomas Sharp
1854 (Circa) - 1860 (Circa)
On the Wellington Monument (1854-7) and Guards Memorial (1860)
Colleague of Henry Cole
1846 (Circa) - 1870 (Circa)
Friends and colleagues on a variety of projects, the last record of their meeting is in Cole's diary of 1870.
Employed as studio assistant Charles Stoatt
1851 (Presumed) - 1879 (Presumed)
Having completed his apprenticeship, Stoatt worked as Bell's studio assistant. On the latter's retirement they remained a close friends (See Barnes (1999))
Teacher to Francis John Williamson
Precise dates uncertain, however Bell taught him at Somerset House [see Times (1920)]
Worked with George Tinworth
1874 (Circa) - 1876 (Circa)
On the reproduction in terracotta of the 11ft. tall 'America' group (Albert Memorial) to be sent as the centrepiece of the Doulton display to the American Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, 1876. Bell is said to have suggested to Henry Doulton that Tinworth worked with him on the group.
Descriptions of Practice
Listed in Post Office London Directory, 1851 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
'Stone and Marble Mason and Statuary'
Listed under Sculptors Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, Coin, Gem, and Seal-Engravers, Mint Masters, &c., Ancient and Modern with References to their Works, B.C. 500 - A.D. 1900, Volume I, 1902 Biographical Dictionary of Medallists
Listed as a contemporary sculptor. Bell 'designed a medal struck in commemoration of the Tercentenary Festival of the birth of Shakespeare held in 1864': see Forrer, vol. 1, (1902), p. 67. Forrer gives Franks and Frueber, 'Medallic Illustrations, &c., I', p. 213, as the source.
Listed under Sculptors Post Office London Directory, 1860 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
Sources
'Art Education Struggles in Potteries Century Ago', Evening Sentinel
12 June 1964
pp. 97-102
A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain, 1660-1851
2009
pp. 97-102
Catalogue of the Annual Exhibition of the Academy of Arts, 8 Bond Street, Leeds, 1853
1853 (Presumed)
p. 4
Catalogue of the Exhibition of the Works of Modern Artists, City of Manchester Art Gallery, 1876
1876
Cat. Nos. 916, 917, 925, 927, 932, pp. 80, 81, 84
Catalogue of the Exhibition of the Works of Modern Artists, City of Manchester Art Gallery, 1877
1877
Cat. Nos. 993, 996, 1013, pp. 83, 85, 88
International exhibition 1862, official catalogue, fine art department
1862
John Bell: the Sculptor's Life and Works
1999
List of Members: Institute of British Sculptors (or Sculptor's Institute)
2008 (Circa)
List of Members: Institute of British Sculptors (or Sculptor's Institute)
2008 (Circa)
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
Campbell Dodgson, ‘Bell, John (1811–1895)’, rev. Jason Edwards, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2009 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2017, accessed 3 May 2010]
Post Office London Directory, 1851 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
1851
p. 1384
Post Office London Directory, 1860 Post Office/Kelly London Directories
1860
p. 1803
Rules of the Institute of Sculptors
1861
p. iv (confirms he was not a member in 1861)
The Builder, Vol. 17, 26 February 1859
26 February 1859
p. 151
The Builder, Vol. 18, 11 August 1860
11 August 1860
pp. 512, 513
The Builder, Vol. IX, No. 425, 29 March 1851
29 March 1851
p. 198
The Builder, Vol. XIII, 25 August 1855
25 August 1855
p. 400
The Dictionary of Minton
1990
p. 251.
The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Seventh, 1855
1855
p.52
Citing this record
'John Bell', 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=msib5_1216050809, accessed 29 May 2023]
