Details of Sculptor

Surname

Edwards

Alternative Surname

First Name

Joseph

Initial of Surname

E

Year of Birth/Baptism

1814

Flourished

Year of Death

1882

Biographical Details

Edwards was born on 5 March 1814 in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales. His father was a stonecutter who carved inscriptions for gravestones and when the young boy showed a talent for carving, his father began to pass any stonework needing ornamentation to his son. Joseph’s first work, a stone tablet inscribed with his name, age and the date 1821, is in Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, Merthyr Tydfil (95).
His mother came from a more privileged background and she ensured that her son was sent to a local school and encouraged him in artistic pursuits. Inspired by the sculpture collection at Margam Castle, he left home at about 17 to work for a statuary mason in Swansea where he soon became the foreman, earning 3s a day. After two years he returned home and joined his father, where he stayed until his 21st birthday, leaving for London in late March 1835. He took with him a note of introduction to William Behnes, who had no need for help but felt sorry for the young man and allowed him to stay at his studio and watch his assistants working. Behnes soon realised that Edwards had talent and took him on at a guinea a week.
In December 1837, after submitting a plaster relief of the Farnese Hercules to the Royal Academy from an address in Diana Place, Regent’s Park(75), Edwards was admitted as a student. He co-ordinated his studies with work at the studio and in December 1838 was awarded the Royal Academy’s silver medal for the best model from the antique. His friends in Merthyr were proud of his achievements and persuaded the architect Thomas Henry Wyatt (whose uncle was agent to the Duke of Beaufort at Troy House near Monmouth), to take an interest in the young sculptor. In 1839 he won the commission for a monument to the 6th Duke of Beaufort to Wyatt’s design (5). The Beaufort family thought well of him and over the next few years he provided a bust of the 7th Duke (58) and memorials to the 7th Duke and his mother at Great Badminton (13, 16).
In 1838 Edwards left Behnes’s studio to work for Patrick MacDowell. The following year he was awarded another silver medal by the Academy but did not continue with his studies because of workshop pressure. In 1840 he provided two Merthyr patrons, the Member of Parliament and the schoolmaster, with busts of their sons (39, 41). He also assisted MacDowell with works including The triumph of Love and Virginius. In 1843 he carved The last dream, a relief considered to be one of his finest works, which became the focal point of the monument to Margaret Hutton (8). It depicts a young girl asleep with a bible clasped in her hand, dreaming of the angels who float above her. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844. The composition was used again for the monument to Charlotte White (9) and he showed a version of the relief at the Great Exhibition of 1851. In 1853 he carved another poetic relief, Religion consoling Justice for the monument to Sir John Bosanquet (14) and was described as a young sculptor who ‘possesses talents of no common order’ by the Art Journal (A J 1856, 188).
Edwards took infinite pains with his sculpture, often re-modelling a work several times before he was satisfied. He always made the finishing touches himself. In consequence, his commissions often took much longer than expected. In 1854 his high relief of Hope for the memorial to William Hawkins of Colchester which took six years to complete, was described by a critic as ‘a monument of great beauty and refinement’ (24) (Davies 2000, 33). The Hawkins family originally agreed to pay £258 (including carriage and installation) but became impatient with the delay, complaining that they had been overcharged. Edwards asked John Henry Foley for his opinion on the value of the work and was told that 500 guineas would be a moderate price and that he knew of another sculptor who would charge 800 guineas. In 1861 Edwards's statue of Religion was erected over the grave of Eliza Vaughan in Highgate Cemetery (27). Eleven years later he was asked to reproduce the statue for the Harries family memorial in Cefn-coed-y-cymmer Cemetery on the banks of the River Taff in Merthyr, where it is known locally as the ‘White Lady’.
Edwards always received favourable reviews from the Art Journal and executed the memorials for both George Virtue, the proprietor, and Samuel Carter Hall, the editor (28, 32). Mrs S C Hall encouraged Edwards to design and execute an overmantel relief for their home in Surrey. The result was a charming panel entitled The angel of Love and Truth, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1866 (91) and later became widely known when the design was used as the headpiece on the title page of the popular periodical, The Girls’ Own Paper.
Edwards was deeply interested in religion and philosophy and was a member of the Cymmrodorion Society, established in 1751 for the encouragement of the Welsh Arts, Science and Literature. In 1880 he was asked to design a medal for the Society, a commission he considered particularly important. He did not marry because he felt he could never provide a wife with comfort and security.
From about 1860 he assisted Matthew Noble. Apparently he often worked on Sundays and at night, so earning the sobriquet ‘sculptor’s ghost’. When Noble was dying in 1876 he asked Edwards, who was by then 62, to supervise the completion of all his works. This was a daunting task for there were a number in hand. He had to deal with copious amounts of paperwork, and also dispose of as many original models as possible for the benefit of Mrs Noble and her two sons.
When all was settled, Edwards found himself in straitened circumstances and his friends including Thomas Woolner and G F Watts helped him apply to the Royal Academy to become a Turner annuitant, which entitled him to £50 a year. He died on 8 January 1882 and bequeathed all his models and books to the Cymmrodorion Society. He was buried at Highgate Cemetery and a committee collected £70 for a monument: 2 of his pupils executed a cameo portrait in high relief for his tombstone.
Sylvia Allen
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 140-1; Wilkins 1994, 127-8; Davies 2000