Details of Sculptor

Surname

Mossman

Alternative Surname

First Name

John

Initial of Surname

M

Year of Birth/Baptism

1817

Flourished

Year of Death

1890

Biographical Details

John Mossman ran the firm of J & G Mossman, which was responsible for large numbers of funerary monuments in the Glasgow necropolis and dominated architectural sculpture in the city during the second half of the 19th century. He was born in 1817 in London where his father William Mossman was employed by Sir Francis Chantrey. In the early 1820s the family moved to Edinburgh and then to Glasgow. John received his first instruction in sculpture from his father and then studied in Edinburgh and later in London, where for a time he was employed by Carlo, Baron Marochetti. In 1847 he returned to Glasgow, where he worked almost exclusively for his father until the latter's death in 1851. John then took over control of the family firm, which he ran with assistance from his brothers George Mossman and William Mossman II. He had a studio at 83 North Frederick Street from 1850 until 1878, when he moved to 21 Elmbank Crescent.
Mossman’s earliest recorded independent work is the monument commemorating the sculptor Peter Lawrence which once stood in Glasgow necropolis (1). It is probably the first example of a free standing figure carved in the west of Scotland by a sculptor, not a mason. The statue of a winged youth bearing an extinguished torch was badly vandalised in 1996 and its headless remains are now in a City Council store, though the pedestal with its profile portrait of Lawrence remains in situ.
He provided architectural sculpture for many prominent Glasgow buildings, including St Andrew’s halls and the Athenaeum, both of which have extensive sculptural programmes incorporating life-size figures and allegorical groups (105, 114). Although some of his best work was architectural sculpture, a significant part of his practice was in portraiture. He exhibited large numbers of busts, only a few of which have been traced, and he provided several public monuments. His statue of Sir Robert Peel, erected in Glasgow in 1859, is noteworthy because it was the first major public commission awarded to a sculptor living in the west of Scotland (29). Further statues for Glasgow, Paisley and Bombay followed (30, 33, 34, 35, 37, 39, 40). He also set up the first foundry for casting bronze sculpture in Glasgow, though he continued to send his large public statues to English founders for casting.
Mossman was one of the founders of the Glasgow School of Art in 1844, where he taught modelling and served as a visiting master and member of the Committee of Management until 1890. A number of sculptors were trained or employed as assistants in his workshop, including Walter Buchan, James Young, James Pittendrigh Macgillivray, Francis Leslie and Daniel Ferguson. He died at Port Bannatyne on the Isle of Bute on 22 September 1890 and is buried at Sighthill cemetery, Springburn, north Glasgow. His estate was valued at more than £7,245. Since his son, William Mossman III, had died in 1877, the family business passed to his nephew John, the son of George Mossman. It was sold soon after but still exists under its original name and specialises in monumental masonry.
The list of works includes sculpture produced by the Mossman firm between 1851 and 1890.
EH
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 266; Woodward 1977, vol 1, pt 1, 137-8, vol 1, pt 2, 160-4; Pearson 1991, 92-3 (Woodward); Grove 28, 1996, 242 (Johnston); McKenzie 2002, 492-3
Additional MS Sources: Mossman & Co Papers
Will: NLS SC36/51/102, SC36/48/130 and 136, GSC will, 2 December 1890, inventory, 8 December 1890 and 5 April 1892