Details of Sculptor

Surname

Loft

Alternative Surname

First Name

James

Initial of Surname

L

Year of Birth/Baptism

c1800

Flourished

Year of Death

1889

Biographical Details

Gunnis indicates that Loft was originally from Hull but the 1851 and 1861 census returns show that he was born at Binbrook, near Louth, in 1801 or 1802. At twenty he went to London, where he became a pupil of Francis Chantrey and attended the Royal Academy schools, winning a silver medal for a model of an academy figure (29). He exhibited at the Royal Academy between l825 and 1867 and at the Society of British Artists in 1832 and 1837, from addresses at 73 Upper Ebury Street; 91 Dean Street, Soho; Chelsea and 29 Clipstone Street. His exhibits included a a statue of Daniel Sykes, reviewed in The Athenaeum, who noted ‘There is some good drapery on this statue but the posture is a little restrained’ (10). His group, The Graces, was discussed by the Art Union who commented, ‘The figure are so individualized that each in the group yet not of it: such a want of correlation is always fatal to the subject. With respect to the disposition of the figures, it may be remarked that a mere departure from a normal propriety is not originality’ (AU, 1842, 128) (11).
When he gave evidence before the National Gallery parliamentary commission in 1853, Loft stated that he had for many years run a plaster figure shop in Dean Street, which he had taken over from Sarti, and that he had the contract for making moulds from the statues at the British Museum. An unsigned terracotta bust of Oliver Cromwell belonged to Loft before it was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in 1861 (NPG 132). It was probably made during the 19th century and is based on a marble in the Ashmolean which probably dates from the 18th century, but was once thought to be the work of Edward Pearce. (Inf. Gerardine Mulcahy)
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 242; Pyke 1973, 81; Penny 1992, 142; Jenkins 1992, 34
Archival References: GPC