SMM+S

jimmcginlay · Last edited by jimmcginlay on Sun Jul 12, 2009 10:34 pm; edited 1 time in total

The memorial to writer and historian Thomas Carlyle.

Location: In Kelvingrove Park, on eastern side of Kelvin Way.

Sculptor: William Kellock Brown,

The sculpture is unusual with Carlyle's head and shoulders emerging from the roughly hewn granite. Carlyle came from Dumfriesshire and presumably the granite was specifically chosen for the memorial as there are a number of famous granite quarries in the region. Kellock Brown's original sketch model has survived and unfortunately this shows that the monument did not quite live up to the original idea. Brown was not a carver and modelled the original sketch model in clay, some of the force of the original work being then lost in the carving of the granite mason.
The memorial has suffered damage with the nose being chipped off as long ago as I can remember with no signs of any repair being undertaken.

The original sketch model

Adam Brown · Posted: Sat May 02, 2009 8:40 am Post subject:

There is a more traditional statue of a seated Carlyle in Ecclefechan in Dumfries and Galloway.

Adam
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