Details of Sculptor

Surname

Bullock

Alternative Surname

First Name

George

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

1783

Flourished

Year of Death

1818

Biographical Details

Sculptor, marble-mason and cabinet-maker, the notice of his death gives his age as 35 in 1818, pointing to a date of birth of 1782 or 1783. His place of birth is unknown. He was the son of the ‘Mrs Bullock’ who exhibited wax models at 29 Bull Street, Birmingham between 1794 and 1798, and the brother of William Bullock. It seems likely that George was trained by his mother, and was taken into the business at a young age. In 1797 ‘Mrs Bullock and Son’ offered modelling and drawing lessons at their premises. A press report of 1797 noted the presence at the Bull Street rooms of a young boy modelling in wax, rice-paste and plaster, who was almost certainly the sculptor. In 1798 Bullock advertised that he, a ‘young artist who gained such great repute in Birmingham’, was ‘returning to London, the statue business not answering his expectation. He now intends giving his whole attention to the modelling and painting of likenesses… his age does not exceed twenty’ (Aris’s Birmingham Gazette 27 Aug 1798, 3, quoted in Bullock 1988, 41). Bullock was, however, still in Birmingham the following year where he set up independently as a ‘Miniature-painter and portrait-modeller in rice-paste’ at 12 Anne Street (Aris’s Birmingham Gazette 16 Sept 1799 quoted in Bullock 1988, 41).
George’s brother, William Bullock, who was to have a notable career as an entrepreneur and showman, opened his first ‘museum’ at Portugal House in Birmingham in 1800, where he exhibited a variety of curiosities. It seems likely that the likenesses and models in rice paste shown there were the work of George Bullock (35, 36, 38). William Bullock moved his museum to Liverpool in March 1801, and George followed his brother there, lodging at the premises at 24 Lord Street. In 1804 Bullock advertised himself as ‘Modeller and Sculptor’ and during his early years in Liverpool he seems to have attracted a number of important patrons for his sculptural work, which he exhibited at the Royal Academy in London. These included the lawyer, politician and patron of the arts, William Roscoe (11), who seems to have had an important role in developing the young sculptor’s career, and Henry Blundell of Ince Blundell Hall (6), whose bust appears in Joseph Allen’s portrait of George Bullock, presented open-shirted, young and Byronic.
By June 1804 George had left his brother’s museum and entered into a partnership with William Stoakes, a looking-glass maker. The two advertised as ‘Cabinet Makers, General Furnishers and Marble Workers’ (Gore’s Liverpool Directory 1805), and they supplied a large range of goods. Their showrooms, called the ‘Grecian Rooms’ in explicit competition with his brother’s museum, now styled the ‘Egyptian Rooms’, were at 48 Church Street. On show were a large collection of bronze and bronzed figures, marble tables and chimneypieces, as well as a variety of other decorations in marble, bronze and artificial stone. Bullock also exhibited his own collection of ancient and modern busts. The firm won a large commission to supply Gothic furniture to Cholmondeley Castle (in situ).
In 1806 Bullock moved to 23 Bold Street, and in 1807 advertised that his partnership with Stoakes was dissolved. Sometime around 1806 he acquired the Mona marble quarries at Llanvechell on the island of Anglesey for a lease of £1000. These contained two beds of marble, one resembling ‘in colour and effect oriental porphyry and the other verd antique’ (Repository of Arts, 1815, 278). The marbles were brought to Liverpool, where they were manufactured into elegant chimneypieces and other decorations. Marble was to play a key part in Bullock’s furnishing designs, for instance in the refurbishing of Thomas Johnes’ house at Hafod, where Bullock incorporated Mona marble columns and paving. He also sold his marble to other sculptors, who were not always satisfied. White Watson noted in his ledger, when paying his bill of expenses after a law-suit with Bullock, ‘A rascal as he is, so much for his friendship’ (GPC).
In 1807 Bullock entered a design for a public monument to be raised in Liverpool to Lord Nelson (4). It is unclear whether, like John Flaxman, J C F Rossi, Sir Richard Westmacott RA and John Bacon II, he was actually invited to do so. Bullock’s design, with Nelson in contemporary dress standing above four captive sailors, man o’ war prows, four couchant lions and descriptions of Nelson’s major victories, was accompanied by a published explanatory pamphlet that also appeared in the press. In it Bullock stressed that his aim was to produce a suitable iconography which was ‘indebted to no foreign or adventitious ornament for its support’ and contained ‘no heathen mythology’ or ‘foreign attribute’. No doubt also seeking to build a showpiece for his own marbles, Bullock added that ‘it has been my principal ambition to erect such a nautical monument with British materials’ (Monthly Mag 1807, 1, 396). The project was far more complex than any other sculptural work produced by Bullock but, because of its anti-classical nationalist iconography, it attracted press support. Le Beau Monde or Literary and Fashionable Magazine (1, 1801, 388-9) declared it the most spirited, chaste and appropriate of the designs that had been submitted’ and that it was ‘what the model of a monument for a British admiral ought to be – British’. The judges, however, were unmoved by Bullock’s ostentatious patriotism and gave the commission to M C Wyatt, who was assisted by Sir Richard Westmacott to produce a more classical monument.
Around 1809 Bullock made another partnership, this time with the architect Joseph Michael Gandy. Bullock’s business had become so extensive that he feared he would not be able to supply all his commissions, and hoped that Gandy’s abilities and professionalism would enable him to carry out all his plans. The two advertised as ‘architects, modellers, sculptors, marble masons, cabinet-makers and upholsterers’ (Gore’s Liverpool Directory in Bullock 1988, 44) and probably worked together on Storrs Hall in Cumbria, Bolton Hall in North Yorkshire and Speke Hall, Liverpool. A chimneypiece for the last location was designed by Richard Bridgens, who appears to have worked for the partners at this time and exhibited from their address. Bridgens later moved to London with Bullock and seems to have been a significant designer for the firm. The partnership between Bullock and Gandy foundered in 1810 over the issue of whether the firm was to become associated with the nascent Liverpool Academy. Gandy, as an ARA, was not permitted to join such a body, but Bullock saw an opportunity, and became the founding President. In 1810 he exhibited nine busts at their exhibition, including that of Elizabeth Rose Jolliffe (20), a portrait all’antica with deeply cut ringlets falling over the forehead. He continued in the role until 1812, securing the Prince of Wales as patron. His regional status did not necessarily win him plaudits in the south, however. Referring to Bullock, Fuseli cited lines from the poet Addio in a letter to William Roscoe: ‘The gods made that man neither a digger nor a ploughman, nor skilled in any other way; he has failed in every art’ (quoted in Bullock 1988, 127).
Between 1812 and 1814 Bullock gradually transferred his business to London, holding sales of his stock, collections and premises. Once again he followed his brother, who had left Liverpool in 1810 to open his ‘Egyptian Hall’ in Piccadilly. George opened his own ‘Grecian Rooms’ on the premises in 1813, but the following year moved to a large house in Tenterden Street, Hanover Square with manufacturing premises at the end of the gardens, in Oxford Street. According to a later testimony Bullock kept an ‘hospitable house’ (Annals of Fine Arts, VIII, 1819, 321-2) and, indeed , an invitation to dine there was extended to Antonio Canova on his visit to England in 1815. The Italian was invited to meet ‘a few of the select artists’ at Tenterden Street (Bassano del Grappa E.68/5654 in Eustace 1997 (2), 22). A couple of years later the house was to act as an exhibition space for the history painter Benjamin Robert Haydon.
In 1814 he appears to have visited Paris, where he met Jacques-Louis David. In 1815 he secured a commission to provide furnishings, including a Mona marble table (40), for New Longwood, St Helena, which was then being furnished to house Napoleon Bonaparte. Other major furnishing commissions of his later career include work for Blair Castle, Tew Park in Oxfordshire (at a cost of £4000), Battle Abbey in East Sussex and Abbotsford for Sir Walter Scott.
At considerable expense, Bullock now transported his Mona marble from Anglesey to London, where it became a fashionable material. Ackermann’s Repository illustrated a Mona chimneypiece in 1816 (31), adding that ‘the importance of this invaluable marble to the purposes of interior decoration, renders the discovery of it highly interesting’ as ‘it vies in richness of colour with the precious marbles of antiquity’. Bullock stressed the native origins of the marble, implying that the use of Mona marble in his designs for anything from tables to monuments was a patriotic act. Bullock also pioneered the use of native materials in his furniture, using local larch wood at Blair Castle and Drumlanrig oak at Abbotsford. While principally classically-inspired, his work also incorporated Gothic, Elizabethan and Jacobean elements. Native materials and designs gained Bullock a reputation as a patriot: one commentator described him as ‘in every respect, an Englishman, and ambitious of his country’s reputation’ (Annals of Fine Arts, VIII, 1819, 321-2 quoted in Bullock 1988, 20-1).
Bullock’s sculptural output decreased in his later career, although he produced some busts. His subjects included his business partner Colonel Charles Fraser (25) and William Hey, the aged Senior Surgeon of Leeds General Infirmary (28). This was based on a life mask taken by Bullock for Benjamin Gott. In 1814 Bullock was commissioned by the antiquary John Britton to take a cast of the figure of Shakespeare from Gerard Jansen’s monument in Stratford (27). Bullock declared to Britton that in the course of this work he could see evident signs that the monument had been originally taken from a cast, and was therefore a true and genuine likeness of the Bard. Once again sensing a lucrative vein of nationalism, Bullock reproduced the cast numerous times. The casts were of some fame as the Annals of Fine Arts later wrote that to Bullock ‘was entirely owing, our possession of the casts from Shakespeare’s bust at Stratford, which bears the internal marks of its being a portrait’ (quoted in Bullock 1988, 20-1).
Only three monuments by Bullock have been identified, of which two, to Glover Moore and Anna Maria Bold, are simple but striking wall-slabs with the incorporation of green Mona marble and additional Greek decoration (2, 3).
In 1817 Bullock’s premises, which he held with his financial partner Colonel Charles Fraser, were insured by the Sun Company for £3,800. According to Daniel Terry, who later reflected on the last days of the business in a letter to Sir Walter Scott, there was a ‘rapid and enormous increase in business beyond capital’, whilst at the same time the finances were mishandled by Fraser, who Terry described as ‘an old crackbrained East Indian jackass’ (quoted in Beard and Gilbert 1986, 127). On 1 May the following year Bullock died ‘suddenly’ at his home in Tenterden Street (GM 1818, 476), and he was buried on 8 May at St George, Hanover Square. According to Terry the fortunes of the business had hastened Bullock’s death. Bullock’s wife was made sole executrix of his will, which has not been located. Sales of Bullock’s stock, art collections and assets were held in Liverpool and London in 1819.
An obituary in the Annals of Fine Arts (VIII, 1819, 321-2) described Bullock’s death as ‘sudden and lacerating.’ The writer recalled the sculptor as ‘a man of very remarkable powers; every thing that he thought, or did, or executed, was on a grand or extended scale’. The writer was in no doubt that Bullock had carried taste in furnishing to a higher level than Britain had seen before. Although sculpture was only one aspect of a large, varied and entrepreneurial furnishing business, the obituarist felt that it was central to Bullock’s enterprise: ‘He appeared to have entered into his late pursuit from one much higher, and much more elevated, bringing more powers to his task than was merely requisite. He was originally a sculptor and modeller, and carried the taste and feeling of an artist into what he latterly directed’ (quoted in Bullock 1988, 20-1).
MGS
Literary References: Stranger in Liverpool 1812, 138; Ackermann VIII, 1819, 321-2; Graves I, 1905-6, 335; Edwards 1969, 172-3; Beard and Gilbert 1986, 126-8; Bullock 1988; Levy 1989, 145-213; Clifford 1992, 45, 50; Grove 5, 1996, 168-9 (Allwood); Morris and Roberts 1998, 111
Archival References: GPC
Miscellaneous Drawings: An album of tracings by Thomas Wilkinson of Bullock’s designs, Birmingham MAG. These include eight unidentified drawings for monuments (Bullock 1988, 128).
Auction Catalogues: Bullock 1806; Bullock 1812 (1); Bullock 1812 (2); Bullock 1812 (3); Bullock 1814; Bullock 1819 (1); Bullock 1819 (2)
Portraits of the Sculptor: Bust, Samuel Joseph, exhib RA 1819, Graves II, 1905-6, 287; Joseph Allen, portrait of George Bullock with his bust of Henry Blundell, oil on canvas, Walker AG, Liverpool, Bullock 1988 (repr frontispiece and 129)
Representations of the Premises: Richard Bridgens, ‘View of the Ware Rooms of Mr. Geo. Bullock’s Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, London,’ Exhib Liverpool Ac 1812, 268, Morris and Roberts 1998, 99