Thomas Woolner British, 1825-1892

These are plaster models for the three marble panels on the memorial to William Ewart Gladstone, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Woolner received  his commission to make a bust of Gladstone in 1863 and he completed the model in August of that year. The marble bust was carved some time afterwards, according to Amy Woolner, and was presented to Oxford University by a group of subscribers in 1866 and placed in the Bodleian Library. The completed memorial consisted of the portrait bust on a plinth decorated with the three reliefs. The plaster models for the reliefs were exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1868.

The reliefs, based on scenes from The Iliad, were designed 'as a compliment to Mr. Gladstone's study and knowledge of Greek art' (A. Woolner, p.237). Gladstone, a Greek scholar who read classics at Oxford, was a renowned commentator on Homer. He had published his Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age in 1858 and in 1863 together with his brother-in-law, Lord Lyttelton, he brought out Translations, containing passages from The Iliad.  Woolner thought it appropriate that Gladstone 'should look the living man surrounding the Ideal subjects, to avoid any possibility of being mistaken for the poet himself instead of his commentator' (A.Woolner, p.268). Classical subjects are relatively unusual in Woolner's oeuvre; Homer though remained high in Pre-Raphaelite esteem and was a two star 'Immortal'.

Woolner's reliefs are unconventional by Neo-classical standards, detailed and sharply modelled, their actions vigorous and expressive.  The Anthenaeum  praised the 'vigour of invention which is displayed in the Pallas and Achilles...' and F.G.Stephens referred to the 'splendid energy' of the Achilles relief.  Woolner carved a marble replica of the Achilles Shouting from the Trenches relief as his Diploma work for election as a Royal Academician and another marble version was made for the sculptor's patron Charles Jenner (Christchurch mansion, Ipswich). Bronze casts of this central relief are also known; a cast was sold in these rooms 27 April 2001, lot 163.

RELATED LITERATURE
The Anthenaeum 1868, p.769; Stephens 1894, p.84; A.Woolner, pp.237-40, 268-9; Read 1982, p.123; Read & Barnes (Martin Greenwood), pp.154-155, no.73