John Henry Foley (24 May 1818 – 27 August 1874), often referred to as J. H. Foley, was an Irish sculptor, working in London. He is best known for his statues of Daniel O'Connell in Dublin, and of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial in London and for a number of works in India.
While much contemporary Victorian sculpture was considered lacking in quality and vision, Foley's work was often regarded as exceptional for its technical excellence and life-like qualities. He was considered the finest equestrian sculptor of the Victorian era. His equestrian statue of Henry Hardinge, 1st Viscount Hardinge for Kolkata was considered, with its dynamic pose of horse and rider, to be the most important equestrian statue cast in Britain at the time. His 1874 equestrian statue of Sir James Outram, 1st Baronet for Kolkata was also widely praised and, like the Hardinge statue, was also considered an important symbol of British imperial rule in India. Foley's pupil Thomas Brock completed several of Foley's commissions after his death, including the statue of Prince Albert for the Albert Memorial.
Biography
Early life
Foley was born 24 May 1818, at 6 Montgomery Street, Dublin, in what was then the city's artists' quarter. The street has since been renamed Foley Street in his honour. His father was a grocer and his step-grandfather Benjamin Schrowder was a sculptor. At the age of thirteen, he followed his brother Edward to begin studying drawing and modelling at the Royal Dublin Society school, where he took several first-class prizes. In 1835 he was admitted to the Royal Academy Schools in London, where he won a silver medal for sculpture. Both brothers served as studio assistants to the sculptor William Behnes. Foley exhibited at the Royal Academy for the first time in 1839. Foley's first significant commission came in 1840 with a sculpture group, Ino and Bacchus for Lord Ellesmere. Youth at a Stream exhibited in 1844 brought greater recognition and the same year he received two commissions from the Palace of Westminster for statues of John Hampden and John Selden. Thereafter commissions provided a steady career for the rest of his life.
Early career and recognition
In 1849 Foley was made an associate, and in 1858 a full member of the Royal Academy of Art. He exhibited at the Royal Academy until 1861 and further works were shown posthumously in 1875. His address is given in the catalogues as 57 George St., Euston Square, London until 1845, and 19 Osnaburgh Street from 1847. Foley became a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1861 and an associate of the Belgium Academy of Arts in 1863.
A number of works by Foley featured in the Great Exhibition of 1851, including the marble Ino and Bacchus and a bronze casting of a Youth at a Stream. After the Great Exhibition closed, the Corporation of London voted a sum of £10,000 to be spent on sculpture to decorate the Egyptian Hall in the Mansion House and commissioned Foley to make sculptures of Caractacus and Egeria. In 1854, Foley submitted a design for the proposed monument to the Duke of Wellington to be sited in St Paul's Cathedral which was rejected. Foley's sculpture bronze The Norseman was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1863 to considerable acclaim and represented a departure from the more traditional sculpture style of his contemporaries. The art critic Edmund Gosse viewed Foley as having smoothed the ground for the development of the New Sculpture movement in British art.
Equestrian works
Foley received three commissions for large equestrian sculptures of individuals who played prominent roles during the period of British rule in India.