Charles Darwin

Léon-Joseph Chavalliaud (c.1858-1921)

c.1898

Marble

The Palm House, Sefton Park, Liverpool.

[Detail]

This is one of the eight statues by Chavalliaud, four in bronze and four in marble, standing on projecting pedestals at each corner of the octagonal Palm House. The subjects, selected and commissioned by Henry Yates Thompson as a gift to the people of Liverpool, represent pioneers in botanical study or the history of gardening, and discoverers who helped opened up the natural world.

This portrayal of Darwin resembles John Collier's well-known portrait of 1883 in the National Portrait Gallery, executed the year after Darwin's death; it is also very like Boehm's 1887 medallion of Darwin in Westminster Abbey. But "the idea of showing him contemplating the flowerbud may be Chavalliaud's own" (Cavanagh 198).

Photograph and text Jacqueline Banerjee, 2009.

[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.]

Chavalliaud had been a pupil of the renowned and influential French sculptor Francois Jouffroy, and of Roubeaud II (see Cavanagh 325). He moved to England at the beginning of the nineties and stayed for fifteen years. Amongst other public statues, he was also responsible for the famous one of Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse (Paddington Green, London, 1897).

References

Cavanagh, Terry. Public Sculpture of Liverpool. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1997.

---

Last modified 24 March 2009