Details of Sculptor

Surname

Stothard

Alternative Surname

First Name

Alfred Joseph

Initial of Surname

S

Year of Birth/Baptism

1793

Flourished

Year of Death

1864

Biographical Details

Stothard specialised in medallion portraiture and became a noted medallist. He was one of 11 children of the celebrated painter and antiquarian, Charles Stothard RA (1755-1834). One of his brothers, Charles Alfred, was the author of Monumental Effigies of Great Britain and another, Henry Stothard, studied under John Flaxman, but was unable to follow his chosen career after suffering a stroke. Alfred Joseph born on 27 August 1793. In October 1820 he married Sophia Pinheiro, the daughter of a Whitechapel tobacconist and they had at least seven children over the next 20 years.
One of Stothard’s early works was the tablet to Sir Gervase Clifton, c1815 (1). Thanks to his father’s friendship with the artist John Constable, this was followed by a monument with a medallion portrait to the memory of the Rev Dr Durand Rhudde, rector of East Bergholt and the grandfather of Constable’s wife, Maria Bicknell (2). Constable paid for the tablet. The Lane and Collins monuments also have medallion portraits (3, 4).
In 1823 Stothard won a silver medal from the Royal Academy for a model (30). Between 1824 and 1829 he created medallic portraits for the series celebrating great men, published by Samuel Parker. It included George Canning, Sir Walter Scott and James Watt, each after a bust by Sir Francis Chantrey (7, 8, 29); John Flaxman after a bust by Edward Hodges Baily (12) and the Duke of York after Joseph Nollekens (9). His work was recognized for the ‘extreme correctness’ of his translation (Grant 1934, 98-9) and Sir Walter Scott wrote a letter to Samuel Parker saying that although he couldn’t be a judge of his own portrait, his family thought it ‘very like’ (www.gutenberg.org). In 1827 Stothard was appointed medal engraver in ordinary to George IV and the following year he produced designs for a medal celebrating the restoration of Windsor Castle (11). Two years later he provided designs along similar lines for two medals to mark the death of the King who died at Windsor Castle on 26 June 1830 (13). In 1828 he was given the contract to supply bas-reliefs to decorate the walls above the grand staircase of the newly extended Buckingham Palace. These were four panels, each 20 feet in length, designed by his father, depicting the four seasons. The designs were published in the Literary Gazette in 1829 (10).
Robert William Sievier approached Stothard in 1832 with the suggestion that he should submit a design for a common seal for the newly formed General Cemetery Company of which he was a director. His first suggestion was rejected but an alternative showing the foot of a sarcophagus with a curved lid flanked by seated gryphons proved acceptable (15). He also produced a design for the Company’s share certificate. On 23 December 1833 he was elected a member of the Artists’ Annuity Fund.
Stothard provided a medal of John Lee, a celebrated numismatist, in 1838 (21). He was less optimistic about a projected second medal, portraying John Yonge Ajerman, another numismatist (24), stating that it was perhaps a little premature to celebrate a second well-known coin-collector. This anxiety make have cloaked concern about payments. Stothard had agreed to provide 100 medals for Lee at 7s 6d each, on condition that advances would be made regularly. The work for Lee came to a complete standstill for lack of funds. In two letters to Lee he appealed to the patron’s better nature by stating that without financial support the medallic art would die out completely (Pickup 1986, 19-20 quoting Hartwell Papers, Bucks RO D/LE/HI/42 and D/LE/HI/43). He was concerned about fees again when invited to provide a commemorative medal of George Carrington, chairman of the Aylesbury Railway Company, sponsored by the directors (23). Stothard stated in a letter that it was customary for the engraver to be paid separately for the dies and the manufacture of the medals, but as an alternative he would take responsibility for the whole process for an inclusive 12s 6d for 80 bronze medals or 10s 6d for 100. The estimate was provided on the understanding that he was supplied with a miniature or bust from which he could take the likeness. Since none was forthcoming it was Stothard’s task to make a profile of Carrington, so he travelled out to Missenden, Bucks, but Carrington was too busy to allow sufficient time for a sitting. Stothard offered to withdraw if Carrington wished, but he did not. Stothard also complained of the quality of the accommodation and high prices at the inn and the subscribers informed him he must pay for the accommodation himself. The medal was somehow completed, but his last letter repeated the request for reimbursement of expenses incurred by him and also stated that he had received physical injury to his chest from a blow received from the coinage press (Stothard Corr, 8 Feb-14 Nov 1840, Bucks RO D/LE/IT.1/26-41).
He became medal engraver to the Queen by 1839 and in 1840 produced a portrait of the Queen and Prince Albert for a medal commemorating the birth of their first child, the Princess Royal (22). In 1842 Prince Albert laid the foundation stone of the new Royal Exchange building in London. A medal was struck to mark this event and Alfred produced a portrait of Prince Albert and another of the proposed building for the verso (25).
Stothard exhibited 30 medals and many impressions from dies at the Royal Academy between 1821 and 1845, from various London addresses. Although he produced little in later years, he described himself as a medal engraver until the end of his life. In 1861 he appears to have been living apart from his wife in Sheffield, whilst she lived with a son in Islington. When Stothard died in 1864 his wife was given accommodation at Fuller’s Almshouses in Shoreditch.
Sylvia Allen
Literary References: DNB; Graves VII, 1905-6, 281-2; Grant 1934, 98-9; Gunnis 1968, 375; Pyke 1973, 142; Taylor 1978, 1043-1047; Pyke 1981, 39; Pickup 1986, 19-20; Pickup 1988, 17-28; Curl 2001, 75, 76
Archival References: AAF, Proposals 23663/1, fol 50 v