A VICTORIAN BRONZE FIGURE OF A GRENADIER GUARDSMAN

George Edward Wade (1853-1933) did not undergo formal training as an artist but was greatly influenced by the Crimean War veteran and art patron Sir Coutts Lindsay (1824-1913). By the mid 1880s Wade had turned towards sculpture as his preferred medium and first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1889 where he showed his bronze bust of Lieutenant-Colonel Myles Sandys, MP. His model of a guardsman was first produced in terracotta and a copy in bronze was purchased by Queen Victoria. Wade then produced a further one hundred copies for the Grenadier Guards. In 1891 he took over the studio of the late Sir Joseph Boehm and went on to create other military models and memorials, as well as sculptures of politicians and royalty.