Details of Sculptor

Surname

Brodie

Alternative Surname

First Name

Alexander

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

1829

Flourished

Year of Death

1867

Biographical Details

Brodie was born at 8 Virginia Street, Aberdeen in 1829, the son of a seaman, John Brodie, and his wife Mary, née Waker. He was 14 years younger than his more famous brother William Brodie. After leaving school he was apprenticed to a brass finisher for several years until he came to the attention of Sheriff Watson, one of his brother’s early patrons. With Watson’s assistance he moved to Edinburgh in the early 1850s, where he worked in his brother’s studio and attended classes at the Trustees’ School of Design. In 1856 he was awarded the School’s highest prize for a model after the Antique. By this time he had already shown ‘great promise of outstripping his brother in the race for fame’ (Daily Free Press, 31 October 1881, cited in ODNB). In 1858 Brodie returned to Aberdeen, where he soon established a considerable practice in portrait busts and graveyard monuments. He lived at Catto Square, Footdee and had his studio in Bothwell’s Court, Justice Street until 1863, when he moved to 56 Enoch Street.
His first significant commission was for a statue of the Reverend Charles Gordon (17). He had completed the model by August 1858, when it was exhibited at a special exhibition in the county buildings. This was followed by two further major commissions in the early 1860s for statues of the Duke of Richmond and Queen Victoria (6, 9). Brodie originally represented the Queen in court dress but later, reputedly at the Queen’s request, added a tartan plaid fastened with a thistle brooch on the left shoulder. The Queen sat for Brodie in 1865, both for the statue and for a portrait bust (15). The statue was completed the following year and the sculptor then turned his attention to finishing the bust. His striving to perfect that work is generally regarded as a contributory factor in, if not the cause of, the mental breakdown which resulted in his suicide on 30 May 1867 at the age of 37. His unfinished bust of Queen Victoria was completed by William Brodie after the Queen sat for Brodie at Balmoral in October of the same year.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 62; Woodward 1977, vol 1, pt 2, 17-20; ODNB (Smailes)
Will: NAS SC1/36/61/3, Aberdeen Sheriff Court inventory, 2 July 1867
Portraits of the Sculptor: J Bissett, photo, after 1858, private coll (repr Scottish Notes and Queries, 3rd series, vol 1, 1923, 33)