John Graham Lough
'Newcastle Libraries and Information Service
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An exhibition exploring the work of the Northumbrian sculptor John Graham Lough (1798-1876) opens at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle this December.
Lough produced a wide variety of sculpture including portrait busts, church memorials and mythological and Shakespearian subjects, achieving great national success as one of the finest sculptors of his time. He was responsible for the famous monuments to Lord Collingwood at Tynemouth and George Stephenson in Newcastle city centre. He died in his late 80s, and is buried in Kensal Green cemetery, London.
The exhibition focuses on a newly conserved group of sculptures that were donated to the Hatton by the 3rd Duke of Northumberland, and also features loans from the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the V&A, Alnwick Castle, the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle Libraries and Information Service and the Literary & Philosophical Society.
Emily Marsden, curator of the Hatton Gallery said:
“Because of his prominent public sculptures such as the Collingwood and Stephenson monuments, many people are aware of John Graham Lough’s work without realising it. Lough was a celebrated artist in his day but he later fell into neglect. We hope this exhibition will help bring him back to prominence.
"The fact that Lough’s work found its way into national collections and the support he received from important local patrons indicate how highly it was considered. We’re delighted to be able to bring some of those works on loan to the Hatton. We also have some wonderful archive material which shows how his sculptures were displayed and appreciated in the past.
"Thanks to funding from the Northern Rock Foundation, we’ve been able to carry out conservation work to the significant group of sculptures by Lough in the Hatton collection. These works will be familiar to generations of visitors to the Gallery who’ll now have the opportunity to see them in a new light.”
A number of talks and events during the exhibition will celebrate Lough, a now largely unknown figure, but who in his lifetime was lauded in his native North East alongside the likes of Bewick and Stephenson as a local man of ‘genius’.
The Hatton Gallery is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums on behalf of Newcastle University.
John Graham Lough is supported by the Northern Rock Foundation.