'The British School of Sculpture': Rethinking Sculptural Practice c1650-c1830

For writers at the start of the nineteenth century looking back on the development of the arts in Britain, sculpture had finally reached its apogee, after years of subservience to 'foreigners', with the arrival of home grown sculptors who displayed 'true antique feeling' in their works. It was a piece of nationalistic fiction that saw British sculptors finally ‘triumph’ over their foreign rivals and heralded the consolidation of a native artistic tradition. It was a potent political vision and despite its inaccuracies is one that has continued to influence modern art historians - resulting in the acclaimed 'neo-classicists' receiving a disproportionate amount of scholarly attention. Indeed, to perceive alternatives to the mythology surrounding the development of British sculpture is to seriously challenge our current understanding of sculptural practice in the period.

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