William Menelaus (1818-1882)

Sir Thomas Brock, K.C.B., R.A. 1847-1922

Marble

1884, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1885.

National Museum of Wales, Cardiff [Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd]

Scottish-born engineer Menelaus rose to become Managing Partner of Dowlais Steelworks, and first President of the South Wales Institute of Engineers. A cultured man, he was a great reader, especially of Scottish poetry, and an art-lover whose bequest of thirty-six paintings, as noted on the museum label, formed the foundation of the museum's art collection. Brock based this posthumous bust on Menelaus's death-mask, and photographs of him.

Photograph (by kind permission of the museum) and text by Jacqueline Banerjee. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the museum and the photographer, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]