Mary Grant

Mary Grant (1831–1908) was one of the most eminent female sculptors of 19th century Britain, with numerous commissions from the rich and famous.

Life

Grant was born in 1831 in Kilgraston House in Perthshire, into a very well-connected family. Her grandfather was Lord Elgin of Elgin Marbles fame. Her aunt and uncle were Mary Anne Grant and Sir Francis Grant, both artists, the latter being President of the Royal Academy. Another uncle was General James Hope Grant, a British military hero. These artistic and aristocratic connections would serve her well in the otherwise notoriously male preserve of figurative sculpture.

She took up sculpting in her twenties, and went to Florence to study under Odoardo Fantacchiotti and then went to Rome to study under John Gibson, both highly skilled figurative sculptors. After a period in Paris studying with she then set up studio in London, working under the guidance of John Henry Foley.

She never married. She died on 20 February 1908 in London.

Principal works Queen Victoria for the Rajah of Kapurthala. Memorial fountain to Henry Fawcett, a campaigner for Women’s Suffrage, on the Victoria Embankment in London Figures surrounding the main doorway of Lichfield Cathedral. Bust of Charles Stewart Parnell Bust of Lord Alfred Tennyson Bust of Sir Francis Grant, her uncle Bust of Lady Augusta Stanley, Lady in Waiting to Queen Victoria and her aunt Relief portrait head of Henry Erskine Memorial to Augusta Bruce in the New Abbey Church, Dunfermline Reredos panel at altar in St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh (designed by John Oldrid Scott, sculpted by Mary Grant) Reredos in a church in Kilburn, London. Sculpted figures on screen in Winchester Cathedral