GEORGE PEABODY

W.W. Story (1868)

Client: The City of London Corporation

Location: Royal Exchange Buildings, City of London

Under contract to the City of London, we regularly maintain over 80 public sculptures, fountains and plaques, including this bronze by William Wetmore Story (1819-1895).

Peabody was a merchant banker and prominent philanthropist. This monument and the Maternite drinking fountain swapped sites in the 1980's - a matter of yards.

William Wetmore Story (1819-1895) was an American sculptor, art critic, poet and editor. He moved to Italy in 1856 after receiving a commission for completing a bust of his late father (jurist Joseph Story). Story's home, in the Palazzo Barberini, became a central location for Americans in Rome.

This sculpture "has been singled out, in recent times, as a perfect example of vacuous mid-Victorian Realism" (Ward-Jackson). A replica was made for Baltimore (which is still in place)*.

 

*Source and further reading: Public Sculpture of the City of London by Philip Ward-Jackson (pub. Liverpool University Press, 2003)

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