A contemporary bronze bust of Admiral Lord Nelson by Anglo-Maltese sculptor Robert Hornyold-Strickland will be unveiled by the Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, the Environment and Culture, Mario de Marco during a private view at the artist’s debut Maltese sculpture exhibition at the Malta Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa in November.
The exhibition, held in collaboration with Heritage Malta and the Maritime Museum, will be open to the public from November 17 to 28.
A public lecture by renowned academic Stephanie Jones, entitled The Likeness Of Nelson, will be held at the Maritime Museum on November 18 between 7.30 p.m. and 8.30 p.m.
The son of a British naval officer and a figurative sculptor, the Noble Hornyold-Strickland decided to produce a new bust of Lord Nelson to show Britain’s most honoured naval hero as he really looked rather than the romanticised vision so often portrayed in paintings and sculptures by earlier generations.
The sculptor, originally from Sizergh Castle in Cumbria, the great nephew of Mabel Strickland and great grandson of Lord Strickland, undertook the challenge to produce a contemporary bronze of Lord Nelson to commemorate his staggering naval achievements, including blockading Malta to assist the Maltese in removing French occupiers.
The life size bust will take pride of place at the Maritime Museum’s Nelson collection. It will be partly donated by the Noble Hornyold-Strickland with the support of a number of sponsors, including Gasan Mamo Insurance, Simons Farsons Cisk, Delicata Wines and The Phoenicia Hotel.
“With the benefit of the internet, books and the best maritime brains in Portsmouth and Greenwich, it became clear that the best likeness would be achieved by studying the life mask produced in Vienna in late August or early September 1800 by Matthias Ranson and used by Franz Christian Thaller for the production of his famous marble bust which is dated 1801,” the sculptor said.
The mask, authenticated only in recent years, shows Lord Nelson with his eyes closed to enable the wax to form an impression without damaging his eyes and a second mask was produced from the first showing his eyes open. Asked about the painstaking research he undertook over a period of nearly a year, the Noble Hornyold-Strickland said: “Nelson was promoted to Vice Admiral in January 1801 before the Vienna bust was completed but, having satisfied myself that the first mask was undoubtedly the best likeness I could get of Nelson himself, I decided to use it to depict Nelson a few years later on the eve of the battle of Trafalgar in 1805.”
The artist’s next challenge was to interpret the photographs he had taken of the facial mask and his observations into a complete contemporary bronze bust of Lord Nelson, ensuring at the same time uniform details were accurate. Fortunately, he was able to undertake this with the help of the museums at Portsmouth and Greenwich, their extensive archives, published books on Lord Nelson and contemporary fashion trends and from artefacts and personal mementoes gathered for the bicentennial exhibition of 2005 held in Greenwich.
The sculptor decided not to portray Lord Nelson wearing his traditional naval hat but rather sculpting him with a “queue” or pigtail held in place by a piece of cloth tied in a bow, as was the fashion in those days. He also deduced, through research, that, due to Lord Nelson’s undoubted vanity, he wore his hair low over his right eyebrow to hide the scar from an injury incurred during the Battle of the Nile on August 1, 1798.
The Noble Hornyold-Strickland studied sculpture at the Heatherley School of Art in Chelsea, London, before moving to Bath and Malta. He now divides his time between both places where he principally undertakes private commissions of portrait and figurative bronze sculptures, many of which will be on sale at his exhibition. His work has been exhibited in Cork Street, London, Polo Ralph Lauren’s flagship store in Bond Street and galleries in Bath, Edinburgh and Harrogate.