Thomas Woolner

Thomas Woolner - My Beautiful Lady

Thomas Woolner was born on 17th December 1825 in Hadleigh, Suffolk. He was primarily a sculptor and a part-time art dealer but also a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and, over time, a noted poet. The poems here are excellent examples of Pre-Raphaelite poetry and brought praise from many including the very well thought of Victorian Poet Coventry Patmore. Parts of them were initially printed in the Pre-Raphaelites magazine 'The Germ' in 1850 before being expanded and published, as a whole, in 1863. After helping to found the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Woolner spent a year in Australia and returned to take up a career in Sculpture in earnest. Over the years, he was commissioned and created works of public importance including memorials, tombs and narrative reliefs. As a man Woolner, was said to be a difficult character who had to make a concerted effort to rein in his personality and remain polite. However, he seemed to strike up a great number of friendships as well as offer advice. In the latter, he provided Tennyson with the scenario for his poem 'Enoch Arden'. Between 1859 and 1864 Woolner was engaged to create a series of architectural sculptures for the Manchester Assize Courts. These statues depicted lawmakers and lawgivers and were part of the building's structure. Most dramatic was a giant sculpture depicting Moses which was placed above the entrance. On 6th September 1864, he married Alice Gertrude Waugh, although initially he had proposed and been rejected by her sister, Fanny. The Woolners' had a large family of six children; four daughters and two sons. Woolner gradually became disenchanted with much of what the Pre-Raphaelites stood for and later moved towards a more classical form of expression. During the 1880s he returned to poetry to write three longer narrative works; Pygmalion, Silenus and Tiresias. These are much more in the classical vein in their exploration of eroticism. On 7th October 1892, Thomas Woolner died, from a stroke, at the age of 66, in London.