GEORGE PEABODY

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)