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Ritchie, Alexander Handyside, ARSA

1804 – 1870

RSA Annual Report 1870 : "Notice VII, Obituaries (5) Lastly, Alexander Handyside Ritchie, sculptor, died on the 23rd April. He had been for many years an Associate of the Academy, and although latterly, owing to infirm health, he was little known to the public, yet at an early period in his career he executed several works which show him to have been an artist possessed of no small amount of true feeling and skill."In May 1863 he was decalred bankrupt (Dunfermline Press 1863-05-20 from the Edinburgh Gazette) In 1852 a colossal statue of Sir Robert Peel by him in Binny quarry freestone and weighing 4 tonnes was transposted by train from Granton to Montrose where it was erected in the High Street (Hampshire Advertiser 1852-08-28). He exhibited two sculptures at the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851; A colossal statue of a Scottish Chief, standing, carved in Binny Quarry stone and a group of 3 figures titled "Orphans Reading the Bible" carved from Redhall Quarry freestone. ((John O'Groats Journal 1851-05-16). In 1849 he was commissioned to provide statuary for the fade of the branch of the Bank of Scotland in Glasgow; consisting of central arms with the motto "Tanto Uberior" and flanked by two collossal female figures one and a half time life size representing Justice with her sword and scales and Plenty with her cornucopia (Caledonian Mercury 1849-09-27). Earlier that year his statue in white freestrone of Ralph Erskine was unveiled on 1849-07-04 outside the Queen Anne Street Church, Dunfermline (Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury, 1849-07-07). In 1847 (Fife Herald 1847-04-08) he was one of 9 sculptors who, having particularly distinguished themselves by their exhibits in the Westminster Hall Sculpture Exhibition in 1844 was commissioned to produce two bronze statues for the Peers' Chamber in the new House of Lords, to occuppy the 18 niches between the windows. The effigies were to represent the leading Barons etc associated with the Magna CXarta. In 1850 the plaster casts of these wer enearly co,mplete in Ritchie's Princes Street studio (Morning Post 1850-04-09). Ritchie's figures represent Eustace de Vesci and William de Moubray sometimes called de Albini. Vide also McEwan, Peter J M The Dictionary of Scottish Art &Architecture, 2nd revided ed, 2004, pp.470-471 for details of other commissions and reference to his having trained under Thorwaldsen in Rome where he travelled to in 1829.



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