E. H. BAILY, R.A.

MR. E. H. BAILY was born on the 10th of March, 1788, at No. 1, Red Lodge Court, in the city of Bristol. His father was a shiphead carver of much ability and knowledge of art, and it may be this fact which induced in young Baily an early taste for the arts. At the age of fourteen he was placed in a merchant's office; but disliking a mercantile life, he left his situation at the age of fifteen, and commenced the world as a modeller in wax. At this time, Flaxman and Bacon were the great sculptors of the day; and it was by the inspection of a monument by the latter artist, erected to the memory of Mrs. Draper, the Eliza of Sterne, in Bristol Cathedral, that young Baily was awakened to a knowledge of what high art meant, and the importance of visiting the metropolis to pursue his studies. There was some little difficulty attending this step, but with the assistance of a surgeon of the name of Leigh, who was a lover of art, and had a high appreciation of young Baily's talent, the difficulty was overcome; and after modelling for this gentleman two designs from Flaxman's illustration of the 'Odyssey' and 'Iliad,' he reached London with a letter of introduction to the great sculptor, who instantly received him into his study.

During the first few years Mr. Baily passed in the studio of Flaxman, he devoted his days to carrying on the works of his master and patron, and his evenings to the Royal Academy schools and lectures, or preparing works for the ensuing exhibitions. His progress as a student was exceedingly rapid. Before the age of nineteen, he had secured the silver medal at the Society of Arts and the silver and gold medals of the Royal Academy, with a purse of fifty guineas, for his model of ' Hercules restoring Alcestis

to Admetus; while 'Cupid and Pysche,'' Hercules throwing Lycas,' a statue of 'Flora,' and 'Apollo discharging his Arrows,' models of considerable merit, formed his first exhibition groups. In 1812 his reputation as an artist was established, and overtures were made to him by Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, the great goldsmiths of that day, to occupy the post in their establishment of chief modeller,-an offer which he at once accepted.

Up to this time the greatest cordiality had existed between Baily and Flaxman; the latter had always expressed a conviction that his pupil would become a distinguished artist, and upon hearing of Mr. Baily's decision, and fearing the consequences of his abandoning legitimate sculpture for the insignificance of silver modelling, he persisted in endeavouring to induce his pupil to reconsider the proposal; but the agreements had been signed, and Mr. Baily shortly after left the studio of Flaxman. Flaxman's fears, however just, were not realized, for in 1817, at the age of twenty-nine, Mr. Baily produced his celebrated statue of 'Eve at the Fountain,' a statue of world-wide reputation, from which two copies were at a much later period executed; one for the late Mr. Ellice, M.P., and the other for the late Mr. Bicknell, the original being the property of the institution in Mr. Baily's native city. Four years after the production of this work, he was elected a Royal Academician.

Before the conclusion of Mr. Baily's six years' service with Messrs. Rundell and Bridge, he was entrusted with the execution of a monument to the memory of General Ponsonby, designed by the late William Theed, for erection in St. Paul's Cathedral. The death of Mr. Theed threw this work into Mr. Baily's hands, and so ably was it carried out, that he received the thanks of the committee, and was recommended to the execution of the sculpture which enriches the Picton Memorial at Cardiff. After passing five years with Messrs. Rundell and Bridge (whose business was rapidly declining), he proposed to cancel the agreements,-a suggestion readily complied with by the firm; and now, determining to pursue legitimate sculpture only, he secured a study at No. 8, Percy Street, Bedford Square, where, and at No. 10 in the same street, most of his finest works were produced.

In 1824, Mr. Baily received his first commission for a public work, the statue of Earl St. Vincent, erected in St. Paul's Cathedral at the expense of the Government, and shortly after he was

appointed to execute portions of the external and internal sculptural decoration for Buckingham Palace, consisting of the centre pediment of the now enclosed front, the wind dial, a basso-relievo, illustrative of English History, and statues of poetry, painting, and sculpture, as well as half, or one side, of the Marble Arch which now faces Hyde Park. Mr. Baily had now obtained immense popularity; his 'Eve at the Fountain' at once established his reputation as a poetic sculptor, and his works then in progress became the art-conversation of the day.

A subscription statue of Telford, the engineer, erected in St. Paul's, followed the recently-erected monument to St. Vincent, and received no less commendation than his Sir Richard Bourke, executed in bronze at the expense of the people of Sidney, and there erected. These statues established the fame of Mr. Baily as a portrait-sculptor, and shortly after followed commissions for the execution of his colossal statue of Earl Grey at Newcastle, and Sir Astley Cooper in St. Paul's.

Although Mr. Baily had been extensively occupied with commissions of this class, his poetic mind was busily at work, and at the same time he produced his famous Sleeping Nymph, purchased by Lord Monteagle, in whose possession it now is, as well as a posthumous recumbent statue of Mrs. M'Connell, of Manchester, which much increased his popularity in that city. Up to this period in Mr. Baily's career, the lesser branch of his art, bust portraiture, had not been neglected, and his industrious hand had already chiselled some of the most famous men of the day.

In 1834 the great competition in connection with the erection of a monument to Nelson opened a wide field for the exhibition of his poetic mind, and although his design was superseded by the column which now exists, it was pronounced a work "worthy of any age and of any nation." The statue which surmounts the column in Trafalgar Square is from Mr. Baily's chisel; the original model is in the Hall of the Admiralty.

The late Joseph Neild, Esq., a great patron of art, and admirer of Mr. Baily's genius, largely employed him. In his gallery at Grittleton House, Wiltshire, are deposited Mr. Baily's marbles of "Eve listening to the Voice,' The Tired Huntsman,'' Nymph preparing to Bathe,' The Graces,' 'Adam consoling Eve after the Fall,' and 'Maternal Affection;' of his plaster works, statues of Flaxman and Stothard, and an alto-rilievo of a Mother and