Charles Bell Birch

Birch's statue of a griffin tops the present-day Temple Bar marker in front of the Royal Courts of Justice.

Statue of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield by Charles Bell Birch, 1883, outside St. George's Hall, Liverpool

Charles Bell Birch (September 28, 1832 – October 16, 1893) was an English sculptor.^[1]

Biography

Birch was born in Brixton, son of the author and translator Jonathan Birch (1783–1847) and his wife Esther (née Brooke).^[2] As a child he showed artistic promise, and at the age of twelve^[3] he was admitted to study at Somerset House School of Design. In the following year, 1845, his father moved to Germany, and Birch attended the Royal Academy in Berlin, where he produced his first significant work, a bust of the British Ambassador to Berlin, the Earl of Westmoreland.^[3]

He returned to England in 1852 and became a student at the Royal Academy of Arts, gaining two medals.^[4] For ten years he was principal assistant to John Henry Foley R.A.^[3] and from 1852 till his death he exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, and was elected to the Associateship of the Academy in 1880.^[5]

He won a significant prize of 600 pounds in an open competition in 1864 from the Art Union of London for his marble work The Wood Nymph, which was judged to be the "best original figure or group".^[3] This was subsequently selected as one of the representative works of British art for the Vienna, Philadelphia and Paris Exhibitions.^[4] In 1891 he was one of eight eminent artists who were invited to submit designs for new British coinage.^[6]

Adrian Jones and Horace Montford were pupils of Birch.

Works (selection)

• Wood Nymph (1864), his first really popular work^[2]
• Griffin (1880) on Temple Bar Memorial
• Statue of Lieutenant Walter Hamilton in Dublin (about 1880), now on display in the National Army Museum in Chelsea.
• Statue of Benjamin Disraeli (1883) in Liverpool
• Statue of George Brown (1884), one of the Fathers of Confederation, in Queen's Park (Toronto)
• Statue of William Earle (soldier) (1887) outside St George's Hall, Liverpool
• Fountain (1889) in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney^[7]
• Statue of Queen Victoria (1896), at the north end of Blackfriars Bridge in London
• Statue of William Ward, 1st Earl of Dudley, (1888) Castle Street, Dudley, England
• Bust of Prince Frederick William of Prussia, taken from sittings before his marriage with the Princess Victoria
• The Last Call, a group representing the attempt to save the Residency at Cabul in 1879^[4]
• An equestrian statuette of William III, created for the King of the Netherlands
• A series of illustrations for Lord Byron's poem Lara created for the Art Union of London (1880)^[4]

References

1. ^ "Charles Bell Birch, A.R.A., 1832-1893". The Victorian web. 21 January 2009. http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/birch/index.html. Retrieved 2010-07-03. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Campbell Dodgson, rev. Jason Edwards (2004). "Birch, Charles Bell (1832–1893)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press). http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2427. Retrieved 2010-07-03. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d} "Mr. C. B. Birch". The Graphic (London, England) (701): 446. 5 May 1883. http://find.galegroup.com/bncn/retrieve.do?subjectParam=Locale%2528en%252C%252C%2529%253AFQE%253D%2528tx%252CNone%252C18%2529Charles%2BBell%2BBirch%2524&sort=DateAscend&tabID=T012&sgCurrentPosition=0&subjectAction=DISPLAY_SUBJECTS&prodId=BNCN&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&searchId=R1&docId=BA3201435533&orientation=&currentPosition=8&userGroupName=hamlib&docLevel=FASCIMILE&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28tx%2CNone%2C18%29Charles+Bell+Birch%24&sgHitCountType=None&inPS=true&searchType=BasicSearchForm&scale=0.33&currentPosition=8&workId=&relevancePageBatch=BA3201435533&contentSet=LTO&callistoContentSet=BNCN&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&reformatPage=N&docPage=page&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&scale=0.33&pageIndex=3&orientation=&docPage=page&enlarge=true&recNum=. Retrieved 2011-06-03. 
4. ^ ^{a b c d} "Death of Mr. C. B. Birch". The Standard (London, England) (21619): 3. 18 October 1893. 
5. ^ "Charles Bell Birch, A.R.A.". Royal Academy Collections Website. http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=templates/full/person.html&_IXTRAIL_=Academicians&person=5540. Retrieved 2010-07-03. 
6. ^ "The Designs for the New Coins". The Pall Mall Gazette (London, England) (8178): 4. 6 June 1891. 
7. ^ Ninox (12 February 2010). "Charles Bell Birch". Wandering. http://wandering-ninox.blogspot.com/2010/02/water-nymph-with-heron-and-surrounding.html. Retrieved 2010-07-03. 

Persondata
Name	Birch, Charles Bell
Alternative names
Short description	Sculptor
Date of birth	1832-09-28
Place of birth	Brixton, England
Date of death	1893-10-16
Place of death