Matthew Cotes Wyatt

Matthew Cotes Wyatt (1777 – 3 January 1862) was a painter and sculptor and a member of the Wyatt family, who were well known in the Victorian era as architects and sculptors.

Wyatt was born in London, the son of James Wyatt, the architect. He was the brother of Benjamin Dean Wyatt, the architect. Wyatt was educated at Eton College and joined the Royal Academy Schools in 1800. On 29 December 1801 he married Maria McClellan (d. 1852), the widow of Edward McClellan, a sea captain. They had fours sons, Matthew, James, George, and Henry Wyatt.

Through the influences of his father, in 1805 at the age of 28, he was employed by George III on several works at Windsor Castle, restoring and extending Antonio Verrio's ceilings in the remodelled state rooms. From 1800 to 1814 Wyatt exhibited portraits and historical subjects in oils at the Royal Academy. He was proposed for associate membership of the Academy in 1812, but was not elected and never became a member. At about this time he taught himself modelling and carving, moving from painting to sculpture, hoping to benefit from the proposals for great memorials after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. His first public work was a memorial sculpture to Lord Nelson that was unveiled at Exchange Flags Square in Liverpool, in October 1813.

However, it was the marble cenotaph to the memory of Princess Charlotte, the daughter of George IV, in St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle that firmly established Wyatt’s reputation, and in 1832 a committee of subscribers commissioned him to sculpt a bronze equestrian statue of George III which now stands at the junction of Pall Mall East and Cockspur Street.

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