Miss Mary Grant
Born 1830 (Circa)
Died 20 February 1908
Active: 1864 - 1893
Country of birth: Scotland
Country of death: England
Sculptor
Born in Kilgraston, Perthsire, Scotland. Her maternal grandfather was the seventh Earl of Elgin, her aunt was Mary Anne Grant, a portrait and landscape painter and her uncle was Sir Francis Grant, a highly successful portrait painter and President of the Royal Academy who was born in Edinburgh. She began sculpting in the 1850s and studied in Florence under Odoardo Fantachiotti in the early 1860s and with John Gibson in Rome. Grant then went to Paris and studied with Michel Mercier. She established a studio in London in the late 1860s and worked under the direction of John Foley in 1868-9. In 1887-8 she visited the USA.
From 1870 Grant received numerous commissions for portraits from Scottish and English aristocratic patrons and developed a speciality in high relief medallion portraits. Her more prestigious commissions included an important series of busts for the Rajah of Kapurthala. From the 1870s Grant executed a number of commissions for ecclesiastical sculpture, including works at St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh, Lichfield Cathedral and Winchester Cathedral. These last works, completed in the early 1890s marked the high point of her career. However, she continued to practice until the early 1900s. Grant died in Chelsea and probate was granted to Charlotte Augusta Grant (born c.1849 in Edinburgh), spinster, described as a Sister of Mercy in the Census Returns of 1911.
There are four works by Mary Grant in the National Portrait Gallery, including a marble bust after Thomas Woolner of Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, dating from 1893 (NPG 947).
This entry includes information taken from Helen Smailes' entry for Mary Grant in Delia Gaze, Editor, 'Dictionary of women artists', Vol. 1, pp. 604-6
Wealth at death: £968 12s. 7d.
Probate date: 22 April 1908
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.
Bust of lady
1864
Lady Augusta Stanley
1877
Alan Grant Esq.
1877
Miss Baillie
1877
Miss Nisbet Hamilton
1880
Diane after her bath
1889
Locations
Address Kilgraston Bridge of Earn Scotland | View on map
1864 - 1877
Address Ebenezer House Albany Street London England | View on map
1877 - 1889
In 1881 head of household was her mother, also resident there was her brother Alan, listed as in the Indian Civil Service
Address Canwell House 29 Tite Street London England | View on map
1889 - 1901 (Circa)
Her immediate neighbors included John Singer Sargent (no. 31 or 33) and Ernest Ibbetson (no. 33) listed as a sculptor in census but as a painter in Graves (Vol IV, p. 211)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The Thirty-Eighth, 1864
'Bust of lady'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The Fifty-First, 1877
Multiple works
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The Sixty-Third, 1889
'Diane after her bath'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, The Fifty-Fourth, 1880
'Miss Nisbet Hamilton'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1866 - 1892
Exhibited 20 times, an average of two works per year, often portrait busts but also figure groups and reliefs.
Personal and Professional Connections
May be connected to Mary R. Grant
Probably not the same person because Mary Grant seems to have retired by 1901 and was living in Chelsea
Pupil of John Henry Foley
Descriptions of Practice
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891
'Sculptor'
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901
None but had three servants, a cook, a maid and a house parlourmaid
Occupation given in Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881
'Sculptor'
Sources
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1871
2004
RG10 piece 149 folio 12 page 18
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1881
2004
RG11 piece 180 folio 5 page 3
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891
2004
Class: RG12; Piece: 63; Folio 152; Page 10; GSU roll: 6095173
Census Returns of England and Wales, 1901
2005
RG13 piece 77 folio 191 page 45
England & Wales, FreeBMD Death Index, 1837-1915
2006
Name: Mary Grant
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1831
Year of Registration: 1908
Quarter of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar
Age at Death: 77
District: Chelsea (1841-1981)
County: Greater London, London, Middlesex
Volume: 1a
Page: 317
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966
2010
Name: Mary Grant
Probate Date: 22 Apr 1908
Death Date: 20 Feb 1908
Death Place: Middlesex, England
Registry: London
Citing this record
'Miss Mary Grant', 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=msib6_1210677881, accessed 24 Sep 2023]
