Swynnerton's 'monumental work' at Southend

From 'Manx Quarterly', 1910.

JOSEPH W. SWYNNERTON.

"In the death of Mr Joseph William Swynnerton, which took place at The Smelt, Port St. Mary, on August 8, 1910, the Isle of Man has lost one of the most distinguished of her sons. A truly great sculptor, the artist had, by force of circumstances, to reside far from the land of his birth but his heart ever beat for the island wherein he first saw light.
Mr Swynnerton was perhaps the most talented member of a very talented family. His father, the late Mr Charles Swynnerton, who died at Port St. Mary two years ago, for many years carried on business as a carver in stone in Douglas, and was himself no mean artist. Joseph was his third son, the others being Charles, a man of scholarly attainments who entered the Church and became a Government Chaplain in India; Robert, an art jeweller in the front rank of his calling; Mark, who, as a stonemason, made a name for himself in the United States; and Frederick, a painter who has achieved distinction.

Joseph was born in Douglas on July 6, 1848. His education was received in Douglas and was in great part the outcome of unaided application to study. On leaving school he was apprenticed to his father and almost immediately gave such evidence of his artistic instinct that he, while still a youth, was sent by his father to Edinburgh for the purpose of studying modelling. Thence he proceeded to Rome and, entering the art schools in that great centre of art, had a distinguished career in the course of which he was awarded several medals for ability and proficiency in sculpture by the then Pope, His Holiness Pius IX.

On emerging from the student stage, he executed some very fine work, notably a Magdalen in bas relief, full of the tenderest feeling; a St. Winifrede, now in the church at Holywell; a St. Francesca Romana, worked in coloured marbles, now in the famous Jesuit Church of Farm-street, London; a Mater Dolorosa and Christ at the Column in the same church. His large fountain " Immortal Youth," won the admiration of the chief artists of the day -- Burne Jones, Alma Tadema, and Holman Hunt. This fountain was afterwards exhibited in Rome and gained for the sculptor the grande medaille. Another fountain, "Love's Chalice," at present in the Camberwell Gallery, is also a very fine and important piece of sculpture.

His monumental work, however, is, the splendid statue of the late Queen Victoria, now at Southend. This noble presentment of the great monarch created quite a sensation in art circles. Other statues for which the late Joseph Swynnerton was responsible were those of Hugh Mason, at Ashton-under-Lyne and Joseph Verdun. The Isle of Man contains at least three excellent specimens of Mr Swynnerton's work in his bust of the late T. E. Brown, the Manx patriot-poet, now in the Douglas Free Library; that of the late Sir John Goldie-Taubman, Speaker of the House of Keys, now in the House of Keys; and that of the late Pierre Henri Josef Baume, who left a large sum for charitable purposes on the Island. It was as good as decided, too, by the committee which has in hand the memorial to the late Mr Arthur William Moore, Speaker of the House of Keys, that Mr Swynnerton should be commissioned to execute a bust of Mr Moore, to be placed in the Keys' Chamber.

Mr Swynnerton, who for several years past has been resident in Rome, suffered from heart complaint and about a fortnight ago he came to Port St. Mary in the hope that the change would benefit his system. Realisation, however, failed to attend upon hope, and he passed away as stated on Monday. In private life Mr Swynnerton was a most amiable, though somewhat reserved, gentleman, and of very kindly disposition. Very few of this generation knew him during his early days in the Isle of Man, but those who had that privilege speak highly of his sterling qualities. He is survived by his wife, who grieves sorely in her loss of an affectionate husband and a kindly and helpful life-companion. The funeral took place at Maughold Churchyard on August 11th."

Swynnerton's glorious sculpture of Queen Victoria, perched high on Alexandra Cliff with her famously lofty expression and her right arm pointing out over the Thames estuary, looked as handsome and imposing as the sun rose over Southend at six this morning as it did back in 1897 when unveiled to commemorate the monarch's diamond jubilee.