Caractacus

John Henry Foley was the son of an Irish glass-blower. An excellent draughtsman he studied at The Royal Dublin Society and The Royal Academy, first exhibiting at the latter in 1939. In 1851 the City of London Corporation commissioned two sculptures for Mansion House, one of which was Caractacus. It was sculpted in marble, Elkington & Co producing the first series of reductions in 1861, which were noted as 'among the most popular of Art Union bronzes' (S. Beattie, The New Sculpture, London, 1983, pl. 2, & p. 182). Amongst Foley's most noted achievements is the gilded-bronze sculpture of Prince Albert, which forms the centrepiece of The Albert Memorial, Kensington Gardens, London, although sadly Foley would not live to see its completion.