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Phyllis Muriel Cowan Archibald (1880 – 9 March 1947), later Phyllis Archibald Clay, was a British sculptor. Archibald was an Associate member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors from 1923, and member of the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists.

Biography

Phyllis Archibald was born in Tunbridge Wells. Her father, Edmund Douglas Archibald, 1851–1913, was a meteorologist and a Professor of Mathematics and by 1891 the family were living in her mother's native Scotland. Phyllis Archibald was educated at the Park School in Glasgow and then studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1903 to 1906 before spending several years studying sculpture in Paris. Before World War I began, Archibald moved to London where she established herself as a sculptor of animals and portrait figures, working in wood, stone and with a variety of metals. In 1911 Archibald married the journalist Charles Clay, 1856–1941, and the couple lived at Hampstead in London then at Bletchingley in Surrey before, as a widow, she moved to Grasmere where she died in 1947.

Awards and exhibitions

Archibald was a prolific exhibitor of her art, most notably with the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, and the Glasgow Society of Lady Artists. Outside of Scotland, Archibald exhibited works at the Royal Academy and with the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in London, at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, and at the Paris Salon.

Between 1927 and 1937 Archibald had twelve works included in exhibitions of the Society of Women Artists. During 1906 and 1907, Archibald created a set of four stone sculptures of allegorical female figures for the facade of the Royal Bank of Scotland building in St Enoch Square in Glasgow. Elsewhere in Glasgow, she sculpted a figure representing Science & Industry for a warehouse entrance in West Campbell Street. Archibald completed a number of works for charities and churches, notably figures for choir stall of the Congregational Church at Whitchurch in 1910. At least one piece by her was included in the 1924 British Empire Exhibition in London.

Selected works

References

1. ^ University of Glasgow History of Art / HATII (2011). "Mrs Phyllis Muriel Cowan Archibald Clay". Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851–1951. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
2. ^ David Buckman (2006). Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 1, A to L. Art Dictionaries Ltd. ISBN 0-953260-95-X.
3. ^ Sara Gray (2019). British Women Artists. A Biographical Dictionary of 1000 Women Artists in the British Decorative Arts. Dark River. ISBN 978-1-911121-63-3.
4. "Search the Collections: Photograph". Victoria & Albert Museum. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
5. ^ "Basic Biographical Details: Phyllis MC Archibald (later Phyllis Archibald Clay)". www.scottisharchitects.org.uk. 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2020.

• 1880 births
• 1947 deaths
• 20th-century British sculptors
• 20th-century English women artists
• Alumni of the Glasgow School of Art
• People from Royal Tunbridge Wells
• People from Grasmere (village)
• Glasgow Society of Women Artists member