John Graham Lough was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 sculptor known for his funerary monuments and a variety of portrait sculpture. He also produced ideal classical male and female figures.

Life

John Graham Lough was born at Black Hedley Hall near Consett

Consett

Consett is a town in the northwest of County Durham, England, about southwest of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is home to 27,394 .Consett sits high on the edge of the Pennines. In 1841, it was a village community of only 145, but it was about to become a boom town: below the ground was coking coal and...

, County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, and may have worked as a farmer in his youth. He was later apprenticed to a stonemason, at Shotley Field near Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

.

Lough came to London by sea in 1824 to study the Elgin Marbles

Elgin Marbles

The Parthenon Marbles, forming a part of the collection known as the Elgin Marbles , are a collection of classical Greek marble sculptures , inscriptions and architectural members that originally were part of the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis of Athens...

 at the British Museum. He took lodgings in a first floor in Burleigh Street, above a greengrocer's shop, and there commenced to mould his colossal statue of Milo of Croton

Milo of Croton

Milo of Croton was a 6th century BC wrestler from the Magna Graecian city of Croton in southern Italy who enjoyed a brilliant wrestling career and won many victories in the most important athletic festivals of ancient Greece...

based on his studies of the Elgin marbles and the work of Michelangelo. He became the protégé of the painter Benjamin Haydon

Benjamin Haydon

Benjamin Robert Haydon was an English historical painter and writer.-Biography:Haydon was born in Plymouth. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. Benjamin Cobley, rector of Dodbrooke, near Kingsbridge, Devon. Her brother, General Sir Thomas Cobley, was renowned for his part in the siege of Ismail...

, and in 1827 he exhibited the statue. (A later 1863 bronze version survives at Blagdon, Northumberland). It so impressed London society that it brought him scores of patrons and established his career.

He began exhibiting ideal figures and heads at the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

 from 1826. Between 1834-38, he spent a period in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 where his portrait style was influenced by Neo-classicism.

Lough received a provisional commission to carve four granite lions for the base of Nelson's Column

Nelson's Column

Nelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in central London built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The monument was constructed between 1840 and 1843 to a design by William Railton at a cost of £47,000. It is a column of the Corinthian...

. However, in 1846, after consultations with the column's designer, William Railton

William Railton

William Railton was an English architect, best known as the designer of Nelson's Column. He was based in London with offices at 12 Regent Street for much of his career.He was a pupil of the London architect and surveyor William Inwood....

, he withdrew from the project, unwilling to work under the constraints imposed by the architect.

He was a close friend of the surgeon Campbell De Morgan

Campbell De Morgan

Campbell Greig De Morgan was a British surgeon who first speculated that cancer arose locally and then spread, first to the lymph nodes and then more widely in the body...

 who sat with Lough as he lay dying of pneumonia

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

. A bust of De Morgan by Lough was given to the Middlesex Hospital medical school and is on display there.

He is buried in Kensal Green

Kensal Green

Kensal Green, also referred to as Kensal Rise is an area of London, England. It is located on the southern edge of the London Borough of Brent and borders the City of Westminster to the East and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to the South....

 cemetery, London.

Works

Lough's public works include a statue of Lord Collingwood in Tynemouth, and the bronze George Stephenson memorial of 1863, near the High Level Bridge, Newcastle upon Tyne.

In London, he produced the monuments to Henry Montgomery Lawrence

Henry Montgomery Lawrence

Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence was a British soldier and statesman in India, who died defending Lucknow during the Indian Mutiny.-Career:Lawrence was the brother of John Lawrence, 1st Baron Lawrence and was born at Matara, Ceylon...

 and to Bishop Middleton in St Paul's Cathedral, and made the Queen Victoria and Prince Albert for the Royal Exchange. In Canterbury Cathedral, he was responsible for the monuments to Bishop Broughton, and to Lt Col Frederick Mackeson.

Lough produced many ideal works on classical, historical and literary themes, including a series of marble statues of Shakespearean subjects for his chief patron Matthew, 4th Baronet Ridley.