Shakespeare Wood

Private collection, United Kingdom;

With Bowman Sculpture, London, acquired 1995;

Ridley-Day collection, acquired from the above, 1996.

Shakespeare Wood was born in Belfast but grew up in Manchester. The early part of his career was spent in Edinburgh, where in 1847 he exhibited his first work at the Royal Scottish Academy. Following many of his contemporaries, Wood moved to Rome in 1850, establishing himself as a noted sculptor and, by 1865, was sending works back to Britain for exhibition. Wood continued to live in Italy until his death in 1886. 

Shakespeare Wood was described as being a student of the Romantic school by The Portfolio of 1886, specialising in medallions, relief portraits, contemporary personalities and allegorical groups, usually in marble. In addition to practising as a sculptor, Wood devoted much time to topography and studying the antiquities of Rome. He lectured on the subjects to English visitors and published a paper, The Vatican Museum of Sculpture, in 1869. This was followed six years later by another publication, New Curiosum Urbis. Wood also became the Rome correspondent for The Times, a post he held for many years. He was especially admired for his extensive archaeological knowledge. Wood gradually abandoned his sculpting talents in favour of journalism and his love of the Roman antiquities around him.

The sculptor's works are considered quite rare. A bust of Thomas de Quincey and a medallion of George Comb can be seen in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, while a marble composition entitled Cometh up as a Flower is in the collection of the National Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.

This marble bust of Youth is a very rare piece from Wood’s early years, dated Romae 1862. It was the first piece Wood sent back for exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1865. Although very classical in the treatment of the hair, the sculptor has demonstrated that even at this early stage of his career he was producing distinguished pieces of great quality and individuality.