Details of Sculptor

Surname

Wyatt

Alternative Surname

First Name

Edward

Initial of Surname

W

Year of Birth/Baptism

1757

Flourished

Year of Death

1833

Biographical Details

The first of his family to display a talent for wood carving, Wyatt was much involved in decorative schemes for royal palaces in the neoclassical, revived Gothic and Restoration styles. He was the son of John Wyatt, whose occupation is not known, and Sarah, née Fieldhouse. Wyatt married Ann Maddox and had four talented sons, William Maddox, who became clerk to the Office of Works, Edward, who followed in his father’s profession, Henry John, an architect, and Richard James Wyatt. His wider family included Matthew Cotes Wyatt and James Wyatt. Edward Wyatt owed much of his success to support from the architects James Wyatt the Elder, Jeffry Wyatville and Lewis Wyatt, all of whom were kinsmen.
He began his career as a maker of picture frames with a shop at 360 Oxford Street, next to James Wyatt the Elder’s fashionable assembly rooms, the Pantheon. In addition to picture frames he carved pier-glasses, girandoles and furniture. In 1798, through the influence of James Wyatt, who had recently become surveyor general and comptroller of the Office of Works, Wyatt was appointed carver and gilder to the Office of Works. Between 1800 and 1822 he was engaged on carving and gilding at Windsor Castle and Carlton House (3, 7, 10, 12, 16, 17). At Windsor he provided an exquisitely carved emblematic panel in limewood for the Queen’s audience chamber (7) and in 1805, panels for a gallery in St George’s Hall and other sundries, for which he charged £30 9s (TNA WORK 5/94). He worked again at Windsor under Wyatville c1824 (17).
His contribution to the redecoration of Carlton House for the Prince Regent was his greatest achievement (16). It entailed the total remodelling of the ground floor rooms as well as further adornment of the State Rooms, which had been created by the architect Henry Holland in the late 18th century and were further embellished under the supervision of James Wyatt. Edward designed some of the ornaments himself, including roundels for the ceilings in the scagliola room and panels depicting the Elements, Seasons and Virtues, executed in stucco for the drawing room. For the throne room he designed and executed four overdoors representing the Orders of the Garter, the Bath, St Patrick and St George in the form of swags made of their insignia. The blue velvet rooms were enhanced by Wyatt’s elaborate pier glass frames and by 24 ornamented door panels, which were salvaged after the demolition of Carlton House in 1826 and rehung in the private apartments at Windsor Castle. John Martin Robinson has described them as among the most magnificent in England. Wyatt’s principal source of inspiration was French 17th- and 18th-century woodcarving, probably known to him from engravings, though he spoke the language and may have visited France.
Wyatt was responsible for much other work for the Office of Works. As a stone carver, he provided gateposts with lions’ heads and flowers for St James’s Park, now incorporated in the forecourt screen of Buckingham Palace (9). In 1817 he was responsible for all the gothic woodwork, pews, pulpit and reading-desk in the new City church of St Dunstan-in-the-East and the following year he worked under Sir John Soane at Westminster Hall, where he repaired carved angels and completed the roof at the north end. Forty loads of well-seasoned oak from broken-up ships were used for this exercise.
His private commissions were largely under the aegis of his architect cousins (11, 13, 14). At Hackwood he carved four great swags of fruit and flowers to supplement carvings by Grinling Gibbons already in the house (13). These are among the earliest examples of the Restoration revival in England and have mistakenly been attributed to Gibbons, but Wyatt’s accounts prove that he produced them in 1815 (Guildhall MS 3070A, Chesterfield House account book, cited by Robinson, 160 n 8).
The success of his business enabled him to retire during the 1820s, when he bought a small country estate at Merton in Surrey. He also bought a property at Weybridge for William Maddox Wyatt, his eldest son. When he died on 5 January 1833 he bequeathed his house and farm to his wife, while to each of his five children he left £11,000. His second son, Edward (†1860) carried on the business. A tablet commemorating Wyatt and his wife Ann, who died in 1835, is on the exterior wall of Merton church, Surrey, at the south east corner.
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Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 446; Colvin VI, 1973-6, 58, 312-5, 376 n2; Robinson 1979 (2), 157-60; Roberts 1990, 168-71; Colvin 1995, 1107
Archival References: TNA WORK 5/103 (carving and gilding in seven parade rooms, Carlton House); TNA WORK 5/94 (carving panels for gallery in St George’s Hall and mouldings to bookcase in His Majesty’s Library £30 9s
Portraits of the Sculptor: Sir Thomas Lawrence, nd, untraced (Robinson 1979 (2), 160; James Godby after Sir Thomas Lawrence, nd, coll John Martin Robinson (Robinson 1979 (2), repr 95)