John Robert Steell Sir
Born 18 September 1804
Died 15 September 1891
Active: 1827 - 1889
Country of birth and death: Scotland
Sculptor
Born in Aberdeen and raised in Edinburgh. He was the son of the woodcarver and gilder, John Steell (fl. 1800-29) and the elder brother of the animal painter, Gourlay Steell. John Robert was apprenticed to his father as a woodcarver and also studied at the Trustees School of Design. In 1829 he spent several months studying in Rome.
In the 1820s Steell was elected an associate of the Royal Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland and became a member of the Royal Scottish Academy on the amalgamation of the institution and the Scottish academy in 1829. In 1838 the honorary position of sculptor-in-ordinary to her majesty for Scotland was created for him. He was knighted for his services to Scottish art in 1876. He lived in retirement from 1887 and there was a public sale of all his models and studio effects in 1888.
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.
Marble bust of the Most Notable Marquess of Dalhousie, Governor-General of India
Sir Walter Scott
1851
Locations
Address 6 Hanover Street Edinburgh | View on map
1827 (Circa) - 1828 (Circa)
Address 23 Dundas Street Edinburgh | View on map
1829 (Circa)
Address 40 Northumberland Street Edinburgh | View on map
1830 (Circa) - 1832 (Circa)
Address Pitt Street Edinburgh | View on map
1836 (Circa)
Address 11 Darnaway Street Edinburgh | View on map
1838 (Circa) - 1841 (Circa)
Address 3 Randolph Place Edinburgh | View on map
1844 (Circa) - 1852 (Circa)
Address 1 Randolph Place Edinburgh | View on map
1855 (Circa) - 1860 (Circa)
Address 9 Randolph Place Edinburgh | View on map
1862 (Circa) - 1880 (Circa)
Address 24 Greenhill Gardens Edinburgh | View on map
1889 (Circa) - 1891 (Circa)
Exhibitions, Meetings, Awards and other Events
Exhibited at The International Exhibition, London, 1862
'Miss Florence Nightingale'
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The Eighty-Fourth, 1852
'Marble bust of the Most Notable Marquess of Dalhousie, Governor-General of India'
Exhibited at Royal Academy of Art: The Exhibition of Scottish Art, 1939
Work shown posthumously, p. 101 (226)
Exhibited at The Royal Scottish Academy Exhibition, 1826-
1827 - 1926
Exhibited at the annual exhibition 27 times: 1827 (1 work), 1828 (1 work), 1829 (2 works), 1830 (1 work), 1831 (3 works), 1832 (1 work), 1836 (6 works), 1838 (8 works), 1841 (2 works), 1844 (1 work), 1849 (1 work), 1852 (2 works), 1855 (5 works), 1857 (3 works), 1859 (1 work), 1860 (1 work), 1862 (2 works), 1863 (5 works), 1864 (1 work), 1865 (1 work), 1867 (4 works), 1877 (1 work), 1879 (3 works), 1880 (1 work), 1889 (1 work), 1916 (2 works) and 1926 (2 works)
Exhibited at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts (Summer Exhibition), 1768-
1837 - 1876
Exhibited 6 times (twice from 1851), one to two works each time, usually portrait busts.
Exhibited at Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations (London), 1851
1851
Institutional and Business Connections
Advisor to Edinburgh Association for the Promotion of the Fine Arts
1833 (Circa)
Helped to devise the constitution with the aim of fostering a Scottish school of painting.
Committee member of The School of the Board of Manufacturers
1872 (Circa)
Elected RSA The Royal Scottish Academy
1829
Personal and Professional Connections
Assistant was David Watson Stevenson
1865 - 1876
Assisted Steell on the Monument to Prince Albert, Edinburgh. Stevenson executed the Science and Learning groups himself.
Descriptions of Practice
Listed under Sculptors Edinburgh & Leith Post-Office Directory 1850-1851
p. 286
Listed under Sculptors Edinburgh & Leith Post-Office Directory 1860-1861
p. 400
Listed under Sculptors Edinburgh & Leith Post-Office Directory 1870-1871
p. 432
Listed under Sculptors Edinburgh & Leith Post-Office Directory 1880-1881
p. 482
Listed under Sculptors Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directory 1890-1891
p. 601
Sources
Catalogue of the Exhibition of Scottish Art 1939, Royal Academy of Arts, London
1939
Edinburgh & Leith Post Office Directory 1890-1891
1890 (Circa)
p. 601
Edinburgh & Leith Post-Office Directory 1850-1851
1850
p. 286
Edinburgh & Leith Post-Office Directory 1860-1861
1860
p. 400
Edinburgh & Leith Post-Office Directory 1870-1871
25 May 1870
p. 432
Edinburgh & Leith Post-Office Directory 1880-1881
1880 (Circa)
p. 482
Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, 1851
Official Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue
1851
p. 711 (2)
International exhibition 1862, official catalogue, fine art department
1862
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
2004
R. E. Graves, ‘Steell, Sir John Robert (1804–1891)’, rev. Robin L. Woodward, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2005 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/26352, accessed 21 Dec 2009]
Citing this record
'John Robert Steell Sir', 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_1213625443, accessed 26 Mar 2023]
