Details of Sculptor

Surname

Ternouth

Alternative Surname

First Name

John

Initial of Surname

T

Year of Birth/Baptism

1796

Flourished

Year of Death

1848

Biographical Details

The name Ternouth originated in Cornwall, but John Ternouth’s immediate ancestors were Plymouth stonemasons. The sculptor’s parents were married in London, at St John the Evangelist, Westminster, in 1792, and he was born in Andover, Hants, on 30 January 1796. He moved to London c1810, possibly to begin his apprenticeship. On 13 August 1814 he married Sarah Abbot at St Marylebone. Their first child, William, was born the following May. Three more sons and five daughters were born between 1816 and 1830 and two orphaned nieces joined the sculptor’s family in 1839. Shortly after his marriage Ternouth carved a portrait medallion of his wife to adorn their home in Chapel Street, Vincent Square, Westminster (92).
He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1820, winning a silver medal the following year, and became a pupil of Sir Francis Chantrey. He was a regular exhibitor at the RA from 1819 onwards, showing principally portrait busts. He also sent works to the British Institution in 1825 and to the Society of British Artists’ exhibitions at the Suffolk Street galleries between 1825 and 1838.
Needing more room for his growing family, Ternouth moved to Elizabeth Place, Pimlico, in 1821, and then to Westbourne Street, Chelsea, in 1824. As he was doing more work for Chantrey the family moved again in 1827 to 9 Lower Belgrave Place, close to Chantrey’s workshops at 13 Ecclestone Street and his home at 30 Lower Belgrave Place. Meanwhile, Ternouth was establishing himself as an independent sculptor, securing commissions for portrait busts and funerary monuments. Examples include a memorial with a ‘well-carved relief of an angel ascending to heaven’ at St Mary Abbots, Kensington (1) and several with life-sized figures (7, 9, 10, 24). His growing success enabled him to buy premises in St James’s Street in 1835, while retaining his Lower Belgrave Place address. About two years later a friend of A E Gregory, whose ‘very elegant bust’ Ternouth had recently completed, commented on the sculptor’s cheerful disposition, expressing the hope that ‘his honest fresh face will wear many an additional smile for your honouring his genius’ (Letter to A E Gregory, Feb 1837, Ternouth Papers) (70).
Ternouth also achieved some critical success. In 1825 he exhibited a bust of the radical politician John Cam Hobhouse, which was praised as ‘a facsimile of the features of that independent senator’ (The Times, 16 May 1825, 3) (48). A version of his statue of a reclining Nymph, exhibited at the Society of British Artists in 1837, was particularly well-received (43). The Observer described it as ‘one of the most faultlessly beautiful figures that can be imagined’ (Observer, 19 March 1837), while The Times considered it one of ‘the most striking performances’ in the sculpture room (The Times, 20 March 1837, 3). In 1844 he sent statues of The Penitent and of Thomas Henry Somerset Conway, an officer in the Madras Army, to the Westminster Hall Exhibition, held to select artists to provide works of art for the new Palace of Westminster (36, 44). The Literary Gazette considered the Conway statue a ‘commanding figure, both in figure and countenance’ (Lit Gaz, 20 July 1844, 466), but The Penitent elicited a mixed response. The Literary Gazette condemned it as ‘very carelessly done and wanting in feeling’, while the Art Union felt the subject had been ‘treated in a spirit which appeals to our sympathies’ (AU, 1844, 216).
During the 1840s Ternouth was employed in overseeing the cleaning and repair of monuments in Westminster Abbey and reporting on their condition and safety. He was recommended for this post by the architect Edward Blore. Blore also employed him at Buckingham Palace, where he carved figures of St George and Britannia for the East front (90).
Ternouth’s best known work is a bronze relief, The Battle of Copenhagen, one of the four depicting Nelson’s victories at the base of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square (94). The others were modelled by Musgrave Lewthwaite Watson, John Edward Carew and William Frederick Woodington. The choice of sculptors was influenced by the results of the 1844 Westminster Hall exhibition and both Ternouth and Watson were recommended for this commission by the prime minister, Sir Robert Peel. The subject seems to have presented problems for Ternouth since the battle apparently lacked heroic incidents suitable for portrayal in sculpture. He chose to depict the triumphant Admiral sealing the peace treaty on an enemy canon after his successful bombardment of the city. While Ternouth was still at work on the relief it was rumoured that the sculptor had died. However, the Athenaeum of 14 November 1846, reported ‘Mr Ternouth has written to say he is not dead and we give him the benefit of the assertion’. The same journal commented pessimistically that ‘the long slumber’ in the progress of the Nelson Column had led to rumours that everyone involved was dead and that ‘Mr Ternouth’s very announcement of his life, in connexion with this premature ruin, has a posthumous sound’ (Athenaeum, 14, 1846, 1168). The plaster was ready by June 1848 and Prince Albert visited Ternouth’s studio to inspect the work on 1 July 1848.
The sculptor did not survive to see the finished bronze installed at the base of the column. He contracted typhus and died on 13 December 1848, aged 52. His grave in Kensal Green cemetery is marked by a Carrara marble stela with a classical relief of a grieving draped woman embracing an urn-topped pedestal. This may be one of his own works. Shortly after Ternouth’s death his medallion portrait of Robert Allen, the youngest son of the Bishop of Ely, was exhibited at the RA and his memorial to Lady Madden was erected at Jacobstowe (95, 40). Ternouth’s own death seems to have passed without comment in the press and his posthumous reputation suffered from the generally low regard for mid-19th century sculpture. (Add inf. Yolande Ternouth and her sons, John and Rowland)
EH
Literary References: The Times, 7 November 1846, 5; 3 July 1848, 4; Redgrave 1878, 426; Hutchison 1960-2, 173; Gunnis 1968, 383-4; Potterton 1975, 83-4; Mace 1976, 100-107; Curl 2001, 207, 242-3
Archival References: Westminster Monuments Receipt; Westminster Monuments Report; Ternouth Letter; Ternouth Papers
Additional Manuscript Sources: Sun Insurance 11936/499/1019699 (9 September 1824); 11936/515/1065045 (23 August 1827)
Portraits of the Sculptor: plaster bust and 2 ivory reliefs, private coll, London
Will: PROB 11/208