Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Marochetti, Carlo
MAROCHETTI, CARLO (1805–1867), sculptor, royal academician, and baron of the Italian kingdom, was born at Turin in 1805. Turin, as the capital of Piedmont, then formed part of the French empire, but on its separation in 1814 Marochetti's father, who had settled near Paris as an advocate in the court of cassation there, took out an act of naturalisation for himself and family as French citizens. Marochetti was educated at the Lycée Napoléon and received his first lessons in sculpture in the studio of Baron Bosio the sculptor. Having failed to win the 'Prix de Rome' at the École des Beaux-Arts, Marochetti proceeded to Rome at his own expense and resided there for eight years — from 1822 to 1830 — working in the academy of French artists in the Villa Medici on the Pincio. Though born on the Italian side of the Alps, Marochetti was thoroughly French by nature, and was never even able to speak Italian with facility. In 1827 he exhibited in Paris 'A Girl playing with a Dog,' for which he was awarded a medal at the Beaux-Arts and which he subsequently presented to the king of Sardinia. His first important work was the fine equestrian statue of Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, which he exhibited for some time in the court of the Louvre at Paris and subsequently presented to his native town of Turin. This work gained for Marochetti not only the esteem but the personal friendship of Carlo Alberto, king of Sardinia, who summoned him of Turin and created him, for this and other services, a baron of the Italian kingdom. At Turin he executed the equestrian statue of Carlo Alberto for the courtyard of the Palazzo Carignano (now in the Piazza Carlo Alberto), a statue of 'The Fallen Angel' and a bust of Mossi for the Turin Academy, and other works. He subsequently returned to Paris, where he was received into great favour by King Louis-Philippe and his court. He received several important commissions, including a statue of the Duke of Orleans for the courtyard of the Louvre (moved in 1848 to Versailles), of which he made two replicas respectively for Lyons and Algiers; the relief of the battle of Jemappes on the Arc de l'Etoile; the relief of 'The Assumption' for the high altar of the Madeleine; the tomb of Bellini the musician in the cemetery of Pere Lachaise; and the monument to La Tour d'Auvergne at Carbaix. Marochetti was given the Legion of Honour in 1839. On the death of his father he inherited the Chateau de Vaux, near Paris.
On the outbreak of the revolution in 1848 Marochetti came to England, where his connection with the French court quickly brought him into equal consideration among the court and nobility here, and he was especially patronised by the queen and prince consort. In 1850 he exhibited at the Royal Academy a bust and a statue of 'Sappho;' the latter was severely criticised and also very much admired. In 1851 he sent a bust of the prince consort and another of Lady Constance Gower, and was a frequent and popular exhibitor in succeeding years. At the Great Exhibition of 1851 be attracted universal attention by the model of his great equestrian statue of Ricbard Cœur de Lion; this fine but unequal work was afterwarda executed in bronze by public subscription and erected, in a very unsuitable position, outside the House of Lords at Westminster. Marochetti received numerous important commissions, which he executed with varying degree of success. Among them were the equestrian statues of the queen and of the Duke of Wellington at Glasgow and of the latter at Strathfieldsaye, the statues of Lord Clive at Shrewsbury, the Duke of Wellington at Leeds, Lord Herbert at Salisbury, Lord Clyde in Waterloo Place, London, and the seated statue of Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy at Bombay. Among his monumental sculptures may be noticed the monument to British soldiers at Scutari, the Inkerman monument in St. Paul's Cathedral, that the Lord Melbourne in the same place, that to Princess Elizabeth Stuart, erected by the queen, in St. Thomas's Church, Newport, Isle of Wight, and that with full-length recumbent figure to John Cust, earl Brownlow, in Belton Church, Lincolnshire. His busts were very numerous, but he was more successful in those of ladies than those of men; among the latter may be noticed W. M. Thackeray in Westminster Abbey, and Sir Edwin Landseer, the latter being his diploma contribution to the Royal Academy. He also executed a good relief medallion portrait of Lord Macaulay. Marochetti was elected an associatn of the Royal Academy in 1861, and an academician in 1866. He received the Italian order of S. Maurizio e S. Lazzaro in 1861. Marochetti's handsome figure and engaging manners rendered him popular with his fashionable patrons in England and on the continent. As a sculptor he introduced a great deal of vitality into the somewhat stiff and constrained manner then prevalent in England. His equestrian statues command attention, even if they invite criticism, and are—especially at Turin—a conspicuous ornament to the place in which they are erected. He was a strong advocate of polychrome in sculpture, and executed in this manner a statuette of the queen as 'The Queen of Peace and Commerce' (Gazette des Beaux-Arts, xvi. 660). Marochetti died suddenly at Passy, near Paris, on 29 Dec. 1867. His son entered the diplomatic service of the Italian kingdom.
[Times. 4 Jan. 1868; Illustrated London News, 11 Jan. 186S; Athenæum, 11 Jan. 1863; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Seubert's Allgemeine's Künstler-Lexikon; Sandby's Hist. of the Royal Academy.]