ralph vaughan williams om

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Ralph Vaughan Williams OM A proposal for the installation of a statue of the composer on Chelsea Embankment Gardens sculptor Marcus Cornish MA RBS presented by Peter J Bull 38 Radnor Walk, Chelsea SW3 4BN

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A proposal for the installation of a statue of the
composer on Chelsea Embankment Gardens
sculptor Marcus Cornish MA RBS
presented by Peter J Bull
38 Radnor Walk, Chelsea SW3 4BN
Introduction
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM (1872 - 1958) was one of the greatest British classical composers. Between 1905/1929 he lived in No.13
Cheyne Walk (except when in the Army during the First World War and shortly afterwards). The house overlooked that part of Chelsea
Embankment Gardens that lies to the east of Albert Bridge. Together with the adjoining house, it was demolished in the 1970’s to make
way for a large neo-Georgian house, now No. 14.
During the years RVW lived there he composed his first three symphonies, the Lark Ascending, the Tallis Fantasia, two operas and several
choral and other works. He is among the very great former residents of the Royal Borough. His ashes are interred in Westminster Abbey
near the grave of Purcell. As yet he has not been honoured by the Royal Borough. The proposal is to erect a statue on a mound more or
less across from where he lived. The applicant is paying for the statue and will donate it unconditionally to the Royal Borough and agrees to
bear the cost of necessary work in Chelsea Embankment Gardens.
The motivation, apart from a wish to honour the composer, stems from the fact that the applicant studied sculpture at the City and Guilds
Art School some 50 years ago and had intended make a statue of RVW; and at the composer’s invitation had tea with him in his home in
Dorking to discuss the idea. Unfortunately this project did not materialise owing to career pressure. The applicant is not a musician but
served for 16 years on the Council of the Royal Philharmonic Society, for 13 of them as Hon. Treasurer,
The sculptor Marcus Cornish, MA. (cv. attached) was recommended by Ann Elliott whose advice has been invaluable. He has done work
for HRH the Prince of Wales and a number of eminent individuals and companies. Behind the conception indicated by the maquette is the
fact that RVW had his studio on the fourth floor of No. 13 Cheyne Walk with, in the words of his wife Ursula, ‘its views across to Battersea
Park, of sunsets over the river, and of the river itself (for the plane tress had not yet obscured it from the windows)’. One might add that
passages from his London Symphony may well have been inspired by such views from the house and Embankment Gardens. Also, there is
a visionary element in his music that some may think is reflected in the maquette. The statue is intended as a work of art and not simply a
representational memorial. It would provide a balance to the statue of Thomas Carlyle in the west section of Chelsea Embankment
Gardens and have an educational and cultural role in the Borough that would attract visitors from the UK and abroad.
The statue would be fully consistent with the Royal Borough’s Arts and Culture Policy, and the Supplementary Planning
Guidance on Public Art. The applicant visited the Deputy Leader to discuss the project and take his advice in July 2008 and
again last October, and as he was recommended has subsequently had discussions about the proposed site and mound with the
Council’s Leisure Services Manager (Parks), Mr Barry Maclaurin and Mr David McDonald (Planning - Conservation and Design).
Also he wrote to Councillor Nicholas Paget-Brown, the Cabinet Member for Transportation, Environment and Leisure to inform
him about the project and has received a reply saying that he was pleased to support the project conditional on there being no
financial cost to the council. The proposed mound (simulation attached) would be made under Mr Maclaurin’s supervision would
fit in with his proposals for the eventual improvement of Chelsea Embankment Gardens, and although these may be delayed for
some time owing to budgetary considerations there seems no need to delay the project. Planning permission has been applied
for and the PAAG is asked to recommend that the Council gives its consent to the project so that the sculptor can start work on
the statue itself with a view to it being erected some time after the summer.
Peter J Bull
Artist’s Statement
The compositional model of Ralph Vaughan Williams (RVW) is as much about his music as it is about what he looked like. It is
intended to be an evocation of both him and his art.
In his music RVW often used local, pastoral and regional songs as inspiration; they are steeped in the past, reflecting romantic
landscape, and are perhaps even nostalgic and secure. However, at the same time RVW reflected the crushing, threatening power of
nature and the role of mankind in universal destruction and insecurity. The sculpture is made with these notions in mind.
In the model RVW lays contemplatively, turning and looking up, his body in contact with the earth and his eyes skyward addressing
what was most meaningful to him. The rhythms of his clothing reflect the soaring swooping music he so often created. He sits on a
crag one side of which is stable whilst the other falls away dangerously, reflecting the dramatic themes outlined above.
The extraordinary music he created of the sea and of the Antarctic is reflected in the overall composition of the stretched grass ridge
on which he and his rock sit. I thought the rolling ridge to be like a wave and RVW rock-like, on a raft or iceberg. It should be
remembered that he produced the most powerful evocation of the Antarctic in music without ever having seen it.
Why should a crag – part rock, part masonry – be put by the Thames? For me it stands as a symbol of the huge power of RVW's
music, its character and his imagination. He could conjure from his mind and imagination extraordinary things dreamt up in 13
Cheyne Walk, the brick building where he lived, out into the cultural world. The rock symbolises both the natural and urban worlds.
Marcus Cornish
The Maquette
Site in Chelsea Embankment Gardens with sculpture shown on a
pedestal (early concept)
Marcus Cornish MA RCA Career Outline
Marcus Cornish’s passion for sculpture began at the age of ten when he was first introduced to the Sculpture Courts of the Victoria & Albert
Museum. In time he gained a first class honours degree in Sculpture from Camberwell School of Art followed by an MA from the Royal College of
Art. In 1993 Marcus Cornish was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.
His focused interest in sculpture has been enriched and extended by many diverse and challenging artistic opportunities in the form of
scholarships, artist-in-residencies and as an official tour artist.
Cornish won a scholarship to India to study the work of Ayanar Potter Priests and Henry Moore scholarships to pursue ceramic art. He was artist- in-residence at the Museum of London in 2005 – 2006 and at an Ibstock brick factory for a year. He was also invited to be official tour artist on a
diplomatic tour to Eastern Europe with HRH The Prince of Wales and as tour artist with the British Army in Kosovo.
Cornish’s work has been recognised in a number of awards both nationally and internationally and covered in The Times, Independent and
Sculpture Magazines. He was the youngest sculptor at the time to win every sculpture prize at the Royal Academy Summer Show.
All the above has enabled him to make a career as a practising sculptor exhibiting in a number of one-man shows but concentrating primarily on
commissions. These have come from a variety of sources – private patrons, Royalty, Institutions and corporate clients.
Five of Cornish’s sculptures are at Highgrove commissioned by HRH The Prince of Wales. In addition his work is represented in the collections of
the Museum of London, Girton College Cambridge, the Mathematical Institute and St. Hugh’s College, Oxford, amongst others.
Cornish was commissioned by a London Property developer to make a series of life-sized Scottish wild animals for important sites in central
London, one being an over life-sized stag in St. James’s Square. Each commission had its own particular complexities in terms of scale and logistics and took between two months and a year to create.
In 2003 Cornish won the prestigious commission to sculpt the important Victoria Cross and George Cross memorial at Whitehall. This was a highly
complex and large scale project involving in-depth planning and liaising with architects, designers and engineers to produce an appropriately
moving and fitting national memorial.
Cornish says of his own work; ‘I have always strived to create works focused on vitality, emotional force and a celebration of the beauty of life.’
Marcus Cornish MA RCA Curriculum Vitae
Qualifications
1993 Elected Associate Member of Royal Society of British Sculptors 1989-92 Royal College of Art, Master of Arts, Sculpture
1988-89 Royal College of Art, Postgraduate Bronze Casting Course
1986-87 Middlesex Polytechnic, Post Graduate Certificate of Education
1983-86 Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, Honours Degree, First Class Honours Degree in the study of sculpture with
commendation in Art History 1982-83 Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, Foundation Course
Awards
2005 Artist in residency at the Museum of London
2002 Tour Artist in Kosovo, with The Queen’s Royal Hussars.
2000 Tour Artist with H.R.H. The Prince of Wales’ visit to Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Switzerland
1996 M & G Purchase Prize for Sculpture, Royal Academy 1992 The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Award, International Scholarship
1990-91 Sponsorship, British Gypsum, Ibstock Brick Production
1991 Scholarship, I.N.T.A.C.H (Study in India)
1989 & 1991 Scholarship, Henry Moore Foundation
1989 Weatherall Green and Smith Award for Sculpture 1987 Royal Academy, Goldhill Award for Sculpture, selected by Sir Eduardo Paolozzi
1983 Royal Academy, British Institution Fund Award (for drawing and modelling)
Since leaving the Royal College of Art the main thrust of Marcus’ work has been concentrated on commissions, both private and corporate.
Selected Commissions
2006 Museum of London bust of Chairman, Mr Rupert Hambro 2003-2004 Victoria Cross Memorial, Whitehall, The Old Ministry of Defence Building
2002-2004 Portrait commissions for H.R.H. The Prince of Wales
2002 Sculpture for Ace Global Markets Ltd, London HQ
2000/1999 Patrick Despard, City & West End property development. Commission for series of Scottish Animals in sites: St James Square, Pall Mall,
South Street and Clifford Street in London 2000/1999 ‘Copyright’ Company Sculpture for Paddington Station
1997/1996 Sculpture for China/Molins joint venture factory in Kunming Ching
1996 World Pheasant Association Medal
1996 Portrait Head of Professor James, Mathematical Institute, New College, Oxford
1992 Head of Alberti for the Alberti Group sponsored by Olivetti 1990 Reading City Council, Reading Civic Society Sculpture of Francis Kendrick
Selected Private Collections
Lord Stevenson of Coddenham
The Felix Dennis Collection
Mr. Rupert Hambro M & G Investment Company
Angela Flowers Collection
Private Collections in England, Switzerland, Germany, USA, Netherlands & India
This information is confidential and should not be reproduced in any way.
Public Collections
2005 Girton College, Cambridge, bust of Dr.Kathleen Raine 2005 The Museum of London
1996 Mathematical Institute, New College, Oxford, hear of Professor James
Ecclesiastical Sculpture
2009 A Sculpture of a Pilgrim, Newick Church
2009 A Sculpture of Christ, Uckfield Church
2008 A Sculpture of St. John the Evangelist, Herons Ghyll Church
Solo Exhibitions
2006 The Museum of London, Impressions of the London Seam 2001 Star Gallery, Lewes
1996 Lewes Castle Grounds
Selected Group Exhibitions
2008 Thompson’s Gallery
2005 Fine Art Society, Sculpture Week (models for public sculpture) 2002 ‘About Face’ Exhibition of the human head, loan from the Arts Council, V & A, National Portrait Gallery. Artists include Rodin, H. Moore,
Epstein, Tracy Emin, Anthony Gormley, Bill Woodrow etc. Venue Croydon Clock Tower
2001/99/97 Flowers East Gallery, London
‘Small is beautiful’, British Figurative Art, Ireland Gallery
1999, 98 Sladmore Gallery 1998, 97 Cross Gate Gallery, Kentucky, USA, Selected Group Show
1997, 96, 90,
89, 88 Royal Academy Summer Show.
1995, 92 Mall Galleries. Discerning Eye ’95. Selected by Professor Brian Kneale.’92. Selected by Prof. Glynn Williams
1996, 95, 94 Islington Arts Fair 1994-98 Waterman Fine Art, London
1994 Sculpture at Canterbury, selected by Nicola Hicks and Professor Glynn Williams
1993 ‘Form and Content’ Philip Graham Gallery, London – sculpture from Ibstock Residency
1993 Drawing towards Sculpture, ISIS Gallery, Leigh on Sea
1993 Chelsea Harbour Exhibition, selected by the Royal Society of British Sculptors 1992 Geffrye Museum Exhibition, London
1991 Ganz Gallery, London, Two Man Show
1991, 94 Pieter Breughel Gallery, Amsterdam
1990 Arts Club ‘Brian Kneale’s Choice’, selected by Prof. Brian Kneale
1989 Patricia Wells Gallery, Bath
1990 Weatherall Green and Smith Summer Show 1988-89 Door Step Gallery, Scottish Arts Council sponsored, Travelling Exhibition
1986-90 Hannah Peschar Gallery
1986 Clandon House, Exhibition with Hannah Peschar Gallery
1985 & 1986 South London Gallery, Sogat 82 Sculpture Show
Magazine Features
2009 March/April and July/August Church Building Magazine 2008 Art of England Magazine, article commission of Christ
2005 The New York Times
2005 The London Magazine
2004 The Times (Victoria Cross Association Memorial White Hall) 2003 Country Life Magazine
2000 Financial Times
1992 Sunday Times