Bust of Arthur, 1st Duke of Wellington by Marochetti, 1852

Height overall: 29cm (11.5in)

Patinated bronze. Signed to the reverse ‘C. Marochetti Pubd. Novbr 4th 1852’. Raised on a bronze socle. Mounted on a period turned ebonised base. Height of bronze 17cm (6.7in).

Baron Carlo Marochetti of Vaux, R.A. (1805-1867) was born in Turin, Marochetti studied under Baron François Boscio at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and exhibited work at the Salon of 1827. After further study in Rome, he worked on genre groups in marble and plaster, but became celebrated for his bronze equestrian statues; in Turin, Emanuel Filiberto, Duke of Savoy (1833); in Paris, the Duke of Orleans; in London at the Palace of Westminster, Richard Coeur de Lion (1860); and in Glasgow, the Duke of Wellington (1841-44). During his time in Paris (1832-1848) he created a panel for the Arc de Triomphe representing the 1792 French Revolutionary victory at Jemappes. While working on the statue of Wellington for Glasgow he simultaneously worked on an equestrian figure of Napoleon I in coronation robes and to mark the return of Emperor’s remains to France. It was not until 1861 that the full size monument was placed outside Les Invalides.

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