John Bright by Albert Bruce-Joy, 1842-1924. Unveiled in 1891. Marble, on a granite pedestal in Albert Square, Manchester, facing the Town Hall. Bright is shown "in the attitude of a public speaker" ("John Bright"), not gesturing dramatically but looking pensive [see profile]. He seems older and to have much more gravitas here than in William Theed's statue inside the Town Hall. According to Terry Wyke, "Albert Bruce-Joy's representation of Bright was praised in the local press: the Manchester Courier called attention to the fine head and the expansive features 'depicted with a care which appears to amount almost to affection on the part of the sculptor'" (20). NB This statue is wrongly attributed to Theed in Hartwell 144.
Statues of Bright and other related material
- Full-size statue” by William Theed, inside Manchester Town Hall
- Bust by John Acton-Adams (Reform Club, London)
- Thirteen-inch bronze statuette” by Sir W. Hamo Thornycroft
- John Bright: an Introduction
Photograph at left and text by Jacqueline Banerjee. Photograph at right from Marion Spielmann's British Sculpture and Sculptors of Today, p. 24. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL or cite the Victorian Web in a print document.]
Bibliography
Hartwell, Clare. Manchester. Pevsner Architectural Guides. London: Penguin, 2001. Print.
"John Bright." PMSA National Recording Project: Manchester. Web. 25 March 2012.
Spielmann, Marion Harry. British Sculpture and Sculptors of Today. London: Cassell, 1901. Internet Archive. Web. 22 December 2011.
Wyke, Terry, with Harry Cocks. Sculpture of Greater Manchester. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2004. Print.
Last modified 26 March 2012