Richard Cockle Lucas
| Richard Cockle Lucas | |
|---|---|
Self-portrait, circa 1858
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| Born |
24 October 1800 Salisbury, Wiltshire |
| Died | 18 May 1883 (aged 82) Chilworth, Hampshire |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Sculptor, photographer |
| Home town | Chilworth, Hampshire |
| Spouse(s) | Eliza |
| Children | Albert Dürer Lucas |
Richard Cockle Lucas (24 October 1800 – 18 May 1883) was an English sculptor and photographer.
Lucas was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire, the son of Richard Lucas and his wife, Martha Sutton (who died shortly after childbirth).
At the age of twelve, he was apprenticed to an uncle who was a cutler at Winchester, where his ability at carving knife handles revealed his skill as a sculptor. He moved to London, aged 21, and studied at the Royal Academy Schools. From 1828, he was a regular contributor to the Royal Academy, receiving silver medals for architectural drawing in 1828 and 1829.
His son Albert Dürer was born in 1828 in Bayswater and by 1846 the family was living at Nottingham Place in central London. In 1849, the family moved out of London, probably for health reasons, to Otterbourne, near Winchester, where Lucas may have become a friend of the Victorian children's author, Charlotte Mary Yonge.
Lucas then moved to Chilworth near Romsey in about 1854 where he had the "Tower of the Winds" built to his own design. This house stood opposite the former "Clump Inn". In 1865, he built a second home, "Chilworth Tower", about half a mile from the first.
By this time, Lucas had become very eccentric, believing in fairies, and rode around Southampton in a Roman chariot.
Lucas exhibited over a hundred works at the Royal Academy, the British Institution and at the Suffolk Street Gallery of the Society of British Artists; these included busts, medallions and classical subjects. Amongst his statuary are those of Samuel Johnson at Lichfield, Isaac Watts at Southampton and Richard Colt Hoare at Salisbury Cathedral. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "such large works were ill suited to his powers". His marble, wax, and ivory medallion portraits were more successful, however; many were displayed at the Great Exhibition and several were subsequently purchased by the National Portrait Gallery. Amongst his works on display at Bodelwyddan Castle are wax medallions of Sir Frederic Madden,Thomas Garnier,Anthony Panizzi and Henry Hallam. Two self-portraits, an etching dated on the plate 1858, and a plaster cast of a bust, incised and dated 1868, are also in the National Portrait Gallery collection.
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