A monumental marble bust of Rear-Admiral Sir Philip Bowes Vere Broke (1776-1841) by Charles Summers (1827-1878)

portrayed in classical toga and mounted on a white marble socle, signed: C. Summers ft. Rome 1872

The Royal Academy, 1873, no.1428: Admiral Sir Philip Broke, Bart. (posthumous); bust, marble.

This heroic posthumous bust of Broke, depicting him at the height of his fame, was sent from Rome and exhibited by Charles Summers at the Royal Academy in 1873.  Summers won the RA silver medal in 1850 and gold the following year for his 'Mercy Interceding for the Vanquished'. However a diagnosis for tuberculosis saw him move to Australia where he produced a fine corpus of works including the Rivergod Fountain in Melbourne.  In 1867 Summers moved to Rome from where he sent many works, mostly portraits of Australian and British sitters, to the annual Royal Academy exhibition. In 1876 he executed life-size seated statues of Queen Victoria, The Prince Consort, and the Prince and Princess of Wales for the public library, elbourne. He was buried in the protestant cemetery in Rome leaving a son, Charles Francis Summers, who worked closely with the Italian neo-classical sculptors Lombardi and Benzoni.