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Henry Charles Fehr

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British artist

Henry Charles Fehr
Born4 November 1867
Forest Hill, London
Died13 May 1940(1940-05-13) (aged 72)
London, England
NationalityBritish
EducationCity of London School
Alma materRoyal Academy Schools
Known forSculpture, public memorials

Henry Charles Fehr FRBS (4 November 1867 – 13 May 1940) was a British monumental and architectural sculptor active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He produced several notable public sculptures, war memorials and works for civic buildings. These included architectural sculptures for Middlesex Guildhall, for Wakefield County Hall and for Cardiff City Hall. Throughout the 1920s, Fehr created a number of war memorials, often featuring detailed bronze statuary, for British towns and cities. Notable examples of Fehr's war memorials include those at Leeds, Colchester, Keighley and at Burton upon Trent.

Biography

Fehr was born in Forest Hill in south-east London into a Swiss family, who had settled in England. Fehr attended the City of London School and is thought to have trained as an apprentice in the studio of the sculptor and stonemason Horace Montford, who supported his application to the Royal Academy Schools in 1885. Although Fehr won several prizes at the Academy, he was narrowly beaten to the 1889 gold medal in sculpture and a travelling scholarship by his fellow student Goscombe John.

Leeds War Memorial, sculpted by Fehr

When he graduated from the Royal Academy, Fehr worked as an assistant in the studio of Thomas Brock. There, Fehr created a monumental bronze sculpture, The Rescue of Andromeda, which is considered his first significant work and was subsequently purchased by the Chantrey Bequest for the Tate Gallery. Fehr was greatly upset, and protested repeatedly, when the Tate moved the sculpture from an internal gallery to the position outside the building where it remains. The success, and naturalistic style of The Rescue of Andromeda led to Fehr being, briefly, regarded as part of the New Sculpture movement. Although the association didn't last, like the New Sculpture artists, Fehr's did receive several commissions from firms of architects keen to include decorative sculptures into the designs of their new buildings. For the architect Charles Fitzroy Doll Fehr produced four life-size terracotta sculptures of British queens for the Hotel Russell in London's Bloomsbury. For the firm of Lanchester, Stewart & Rickards, he created architectural decorations for the dome of the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster and also the Welsh dragon that sits above Cardiff City Hall. J.S Gibson & Partners commissioned Fehr for decorative works on several buildings including the West Ham Technical Institute in London, for a school in Scarborough, for Walsall Central Library and, most notably, for the Middlesex Guildhall in Parliament Square. For the same company, Fehr made a coloured plaster relief frieze of scenes from the Wars of the Roses for the interior of Wakefield County Hall in 1898.

In October 1919, as World War I was drawing to a close, the Royal Academy in London held an exhibition of war memorial designs. At the exhibition Fehr displayed statuettes of three figures, Peace holding a dove, a winged Victory and Saint George with a sword and shield. Bronze statues of these figures appeared on several of the war memorials that Fehr created throughout the 1920s for British towns and cities. All three figures positioned on, or around, a stone obelisk, featured on the memorials Fehr created at Colchester, at Burton-upon-Trent, and, in different versions, on the Leeds War Memorial. Several other memorials, including those at Lockerbie and Langholm in Scotland, at Eastbourne and at Grangetown in Cardiff, only featured the figure of Victory, holding a laurel wreath and an inverted sword, on a pedestal or obelisk. The memorial at Keighley has a version of Peace with bronze statues of an infantryman in battle dress and a sailor holding a telescope.

Fehr first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1887. He exhibited at the La Libre Esthétique in Brussels and was a founding member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors in 1904, and was later elected a Fellow of the Society. Throughout his career, Fehr sculpted a number of portrait busts. These included several of William Morris, versions of which are in the Royal Academy collection, the William Morris Gallery and the Art Workers Guild collection while Fehr's marble busts of John Ruskin and Robert Browning are held by the South London Gallery.

Public works

1891–1900

Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates 		Date Type Material Dimensions Designation Wikidata Notes

More images 		The Rescue of Andromeda Exterior of Tate Britain, London 1893 Sculpture group on pedestal Bronze

More images 		James Watt Leeds City Square 1898 Statue on pedestal Bronze and granite Grade II Q26655856
Elizabeth I, Mary II, Queen Anne and Queen Victoria Hotel Russell, Bloomsbury, London 1900 4 statues in niches Terracotta


1901–1910

Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates 		Date Type Material Dimensions Designation Wikidata Notes
Memorial to David Garrick No. 27 Southampton Street, Covent Garden, London 1901 Relief plaque Bronze
Archibald Forbes Crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, London 1902 Plaque Bronze & Brazilian onyx

More images 		John Harrison Leeds City Square 1903 Statue on pedestal with plaque Bronze and granite Grade II Q26655861

More images 		Queen Victoria Queen Victoria Square, Kingston upon Hull 1903 Statue and figures on pedestal with surround Bronze and Portland stone Grade II Q26492135
Welsh Dragon Pinnacle of entrance hall, City Hall, Cardiff 1904 Architectural sculpture Bronze Grade I

More images 		James Watt Former Watt Memorial School, Greenock 1908 Statue on pedestal Bronze and stone Category B


1911–1920

Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates 		Date Type Material Dimensions Designation Wikidata Notes

More images 		John Hampden Market Square, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire 1911 Statue on pedestal Bronze and stone Grade II Q26647298

More images 		Historical figures Façade of Middlesex Guildhall, Parliament Square, London 1906–13 Reliefs, statues and frieze Stone Grade II*

More images 		War memorial Eastbourne, East Sussex 1920 Statue on pedestal Bronze and granite Grade II Q61670643


1921–1930

Image Title / subject Location and
coordinates 		Date Type Material Dimensions Designation Wikidata Notes
War memorial Grange Gardens, Grangetown, Cardiff 1921 Statue on pedestal with panels Bronze and Portland stone Grade II Q29496527

More images 		War memorial Langholm, Dumfries & Galloway 1921 Statue on pedestal Bronze and granite Q114168682

More images 		Burton upon Trent war memorial Memorial Gardens, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire 1922 3 statues on a pedestal Bronze and Portland stone Grade II* Q26577152

More images 		Leeds War Memorial The Headrow, Leeds 1922 Obelisk with 3 statues Portland stone and bronze 7m tall Grade II Q26547390

More images 		War memorial Shepherd's Bush Green, London 1922 Statue on pedestal Bronze and stone Grade II Q26487630
War memorial High Street, Lockerbie 1922 Statue on pedestal Bronze and stone

More images 		War memorial Colchester, Essex 1923 3 statues on pedestal with panels Bronze and Portland stone c. 10m tall Grade II* Q26671057

More images 		War memorial Castle Street, Lisburn, County Antrim 1923 Statue on pedestal with panels Bronze and marble
War memorial Graaff-Reinet, South Africa 1923 Statue on pedestal Bronze and stone

More images 		War memorial Town Hall Square, Keighley, West Yorkshire 1924 3 statues on pedestal Bronze and stone 9.5m tall Grade II* Q26600400


Other works

References

  1. ^ University of Glasgow History of Art / HATII (2011). "Henry Charles Fehr". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851–1951. Archived from the original on 30 November 2022. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  2. ^ Susan Beattie (1983). The New Sculpture. Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art / Yale University Press. ISBN 0300033591.
  3. ^ Heather Birchall (2003). "The Rescue of Andromeda". Tate. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  4. ^ Cadw. "Cardiff City Hall (13744)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  5. Historic England. "Walsall Central Library (1422993)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  6. Historic England. "County Hall (Offices of West Yorkshire County Council) (1242349)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
  7. ^ "Fehr, Henry Charles". Benezit Dictionary of Artists. 31 October 2011. doi:10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.B00062514. ISBN 978-0-19-977378-7. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  8. ^ Historic England. "Colchester War Memorial (including lamp columns, walls, gates, piers, railings and posts) (1391704)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  9. ^ Alan Borg (1991). War memorials: From Antiquity to the Present. Leo Cooper. ISBN 085052363X.
  10. ^ Derek Boorman (1988). At the Going Down of the Sun: British First World War Memorials. William Sessions Limited. ISBN 1 85072 041 X.
  11. ^ Historic England. "Keighley War Memorial (1313949)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  12. James Mackay (1977). The Dictionary of Western Sculptors in Bronze. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 0902028553.
  13. "Bust of William Morris (c. 1900)". William Morris Gallery. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  14. ^ Jo Darke (1991). The Monument Guide to England and Wales. Macdonald Illustrated. ISBN 0-356-17609-6.
  15. Historic England. "Statue of James Watt (1375034)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  16. "Statues of Four Queens: Elizabeth, Mary, Anne, and Victoria". Victorian Web. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  17. "War Memorials Register: A Forbes". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  18. Jason Edwards, Amy Harris & Greg Sullivan (2021). Monuments of St Paul's Cathedral 1796-1916. Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78551-360-2.
  19. Historic England. "Statue of John Harrison (1375039)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  20. Historic England. "Queen Victoria Statue and Public Toilets (1197686)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  21. "Welsh Dragon by Henry Charles Fehr". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  22. Historic Environment Scotland. "Watt Memorial School, Dalrymple Street (Category B Listed Building) (LB34101)". Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  23. Historic England. "Statue of John Hampden (1365631)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  24. "War Memorials Register: J Hampden". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  25. Historic England. "Middlesex Guildhall (1226369)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  26. Historic England. "Eastbourne War Memorial (1441521)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  27. "War Memorials Register: Eastbourne". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  28. "War Memorials Register: Grangetown". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  29. Cadw. "War Memorial in Grange Gardens including enclosure railings (19088)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  30. "War Memorials Register: Langholm". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  31. Historic England. "Burton upon Trent War Memorial (1288788)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  32. "War Memorials Register: Burton upon Trent". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  33. Historic England. "War Memorial (1255832)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  34. "War Memorials Register: Leeds". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  35. Historic England. "War Memorial (1192961)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  36. "War Memorials Register: Hammersmith - WW1 and WW2". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  37. "War Memorials Register: Lockerbie - Statue". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  38. "War Memorials Register: Colchester". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  39. "War Memorials Register: Lisburn". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  40. "War Memorial in Graaff-Reinet, Oos-Kaap". pathfinda. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  41. "War Memorials Register: Keighley". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
  42. Historic England. "The Former Westwood School (1272842)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 3 March 2021.
  43. "War Memorials Register: Dulwich College Memorial Library - Boer War". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  44. Historic England. "The Old Library, Dulwich College (1385421)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  45. Historic England. "Coggeshall War Memorial (1427514)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  46. "Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881)". Art UK. Retrieved 12 February 2021.

External links

24 artworks by or after Henry Charles Fehr at the Art UK site

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