Works
This is a very incomplete list of Alfred Gatley's works mostly
compiled by Dr John Coope and Harry Cole for the 1964 Bollington
Festival. The details given are the subject, date of execution,
last known location.
- Augustus, 6th Lord Vernon, 1850, Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire NT
 .
- Echo, 1850 1853, Gawsworth
Hall,
Cheshire. Gatley sculpted at least three versions of Echo
on request from clients. Two of these are now at Gawsworth.
Picture above right.
- George Swindells, by 1847, Waterhouse, Cheshire. Picture
below right.
- Elizabeth Swindells, by 1847, Waterhouse, Cheshire. Picture
below right.
- Tam O'Shanter, by 1839, Rev Sumner of Pott Shrigley but present
whereabouts unknown.
- Cupid, 1840s, for Martin Swindells of Bollington,
present whereabouts unknown.
- Psyche, 1840s, for Martin Swindells of Bollington,
present whereabouts unknown.
- Homer, not known, present whereabouts unknown.
- Paris, not known, present whereabouts unknown.
- Euripides, not known, present whereabouts unknown.
- Jubilee Memorial, 1846, Macclesfield Sunday School in Roe
Street.
- Rt Rev Dr Sumner Archbishop of Canterbury, 1848,
present whereabouts unknown.
- Pharaoh and his Hosts, 1862,
present whereabouts unknown.
- The Triumph of Britannia, unknown, Gawsworth
Hall,
Cheshire.
- Bust of Milton, 1833, Gawsworth
Hall,
Cheshire.
- Revenge of Achilles, not known, present whereabouts
unknown.
- Memorial
to Elizabeth Clayton (of
the Kerridge mining family headed by William Clayton),
1851, in Norbury church. My thanks to Tom Swailes for finding
this one.
- Thomas Legh Memorial, after 1837, Disley church, Cheshire.
- Craigentinny Marbles comprising The
Overthrow of Pharoah in the Red Sea and The
Song of Moses and Miriam, unknown date but
not mounted until 1867, Craigentinny Crescent, Edinburgh. Pictures
right.
Other works by Gatley are, or were in recent years, at Lyme
Hall; Salford City Art Gallery; St Mary's Church, Disley; Mottram
in Longdendale church.
The two bas relief panels known as the Craigentinny Marbles
(above right) were described at the time of installation in 1867
as "The
most remarkable pieces of sculpture executed during this century."
The original Oak Bank House in Bollington, erected in 1854,
had a very fine carved front door surround (picture below right).
Dr John Coope believed that this may have been the work of Gatley.
Sadly this fine piece was lost when the house was demolished
in the 1940s. |
Two bas relief panels known as the Craigentinny
Marbles
Alfred Gatley's grave in the English cemetery, Rome
Revenge of Achilles |
Extract from KRIV report by
George Longden[1]
William Broster asserts that Alfred Gatley was born in "the
family home", Gatley's Yard - though it has to be said that
Broster is not very reliable on historical matters outside his
own experience [27]. According to the Dictionary of National
Biography (DNB) [47], "while still a child [Gatley] learned
the use of a stonemason's tools from his father, who owned and
worked two quarries in the Kerridge hills." Alfred was educated
at Rainow School where, tradition says, he carved his first work,
his teacher's head, out of a turnip [35, p.74]. Here, his ability,
both artistic and general, was observed by the Rev. J. Sumner,
the vicar of Pott Shrigley, who seems to have given him some
private tuition alongside his own children [51].
After school he assisted in the family quarry, and here what
Broster says was his first sculpture in stone, a figure of Walter
Scott's Tam O'Shanter, was completed. This work came into the
possession of the Rev. Sumner, who loaned it in 1839 to an exhibition
organised by the Macclesfield Useful Knowledge Society in Macclesfield
Town Hall [16, 29 June 1839].
Two years earlier, in 1837, Gatley had moved to London, "aided
by a few friends" as the DNB puts it. He worked in the studio
of Edward Hodges Baily, until in 1843 he became assistant to
Musgrave L. Watson. In his early years in London Gatley studied
in the British Museum, and then became a student of the Royal
Academy, exhibiting there for the first time in 1841. Among works
Gatley sold in his London period were figures of Cupid and Psyche,
for Martin Swindells of Bollington, the memorial for the jubilee
in 1846 of the Macclesfield Sunday School in Roe Street, and
a bust of Dr. Sumner, archbishop of Canterbury and brother of
the vicar of Pott Shrigley. The bust of Sumner was exhibited
at the Royal Academy in 1848, and at the same time a cast of
it was on display in Macclesfield Town Hall. The Macclesfield
Courier commented that "the success of this rising young
artist has been almost without parallel" [16, 15 July 1848].
In spite of a growing reputation, Gatley remained in tight financial
circumstances. In 1852 he moved to Rome, where he took a studio
on the Pincian Hill. Here, he still struggled to find adequate
patronage, as his letters home show. In 1860 the Rev Sumner wrote
to Gatley, mentioning an old acquaintance with artistic ambitions;
Gatley replied "I certainly pity him if he does not pocket
10 times per annum more than I do" [48]. Gatley's letters,
incidentally, also suggest complex (and contested) Gatley family
properties and finances in Kerridge.
Gatley exhibited his bas-relief of 'Pharaoh and his Hosts' at
the International Exhibition in London in 1862. This was to be
the occasion of Gatley's last visit to England; he died from
dysentery in Rome on 28 June 1863, and is buried in the English
cemetery there (picture above right). The rumour that he was
poisoned by jealous Italian sculptors was prevalent in Kerridge
for many years. An obituary for Gatley appeared in the Art Journal: "He
had a mind of singular independence. The style he chose admitted
of no facile compromise of the classic with the pictorial. It
descended not to seek an easily purchased popularity by softly
blended forms after the manner of the Romantics. The school to
which he belonged was stern and strict. The English public failed
to comprehend the largeness of his manner" [57].
Alfred Gatley's diary and letter books and desk, a portrait
of Gatley painted in Rome in 1862, a bust of Milton in Kerridge
stone (1833), a reclining figure of a young girl, 'Echo' (1850),
and a bas-relief panel 'The Triumph of Britannia', all by Gatley,
are listed in Raymond Richards' Manor of Gawsworth (1974 edition)
as being in the Gawsworth Hall collection [49]. 'Echo' is illustrated
in Richards' book, as it is in the brochure for the first Bollington
Festival in 1964, which also contains a photograph of Gatley,
impressively wild in hair, beard and eye [50]. Other works by
Gatley are (or were recently) at Lyme Hall; Salford City Art
Gallery; St Mary's Church, Disley; Mottram in Longdendale Church;
and Bollington Medical Centre [58].
William Broster, it seems to me, made a good point when he wrote
that "it is unfortunate and regrettable that nothing in
[Gatley's] native village remains to perpetuate his memory and
outstanding eminence as a sculptor of national fame in the Victorian
era" [27].
References in this section marked [nn] ...
16. MACCLESFIELD COURIER, microfilm, Macclesfield Public Library
27. William S. Broster, BOLLINGTON & KERRIDGE 1830-1980,
1980
35. W. Norton Betts, BOLLINGTON THROUGH THE CENTURIES, 1934
47. DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY, 1993 ed., vol 7
48. ALFRED GATLEY'S DIARY AND LETTERBOOKS, from a transcript
formerly in the possession of Mrs Rathbone, Bollington Cross
49. Raymond Richards, MANOR OF GAWSWORTH, 1974 edition
50. ALFRED GATLEY, KERRIDGE BOY WHO BECAME A SCULPTER (sic),
Bollington Festival Brochure, 1964
51. John Earles, HISTORY OF OLD MACCLESFIELD, one of series
of articles in the Macclesfield Courier, 31 March 1917
57. Rupert Gunnis, DICTIONARY OF BRITISH SCULPTORS 1660-1851,
revised ed (nd)
58. NOTES ON THE WORKS OF ALFRED GATLEY, handwritten ms in
hands of Dr John Coope (now in Bollington Civic Society collection) |
 
George Swindells and his wife Elizabeth Swindells
Oak Bank House front door surround (this is not Alfred Gatley
standing there!). What a pity that the photograph didn't include
the whole door casing.
Detail from the picture above. |
