Chirk Castle. Lucchesi Bronze Nymph

Andrea Carlo Lucchesi (1860 – 1924) was an Anglo-Italian sculptor born in London, whose father, from Tuscany, was a sculptor before him. Lucchesi trained at the West London School of Art and then at the Royal Academy. He started exhibiting in 1881. Lucchesi was an exponent of the late 19th-century British New Sculpture movement, a school based on naturalism and symbolism. His work, often mysterious and provocative, featured many female nudes; he considered the female figure to be “nature’s masterpiece”.

There are four bronze nymphs by Lucchesi in the grounds of Chirk Castle. The statues were installed in the gardens by Lord and Lady Howard de Walden, who leased the castle from the Myddelton family from 1911 to 1946. Thomas Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden, was a writer and patron of the arts and spent vast sums repairing and re-fitting the castle.

Courtesy of: geotopoi.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/lucchesi-bronze-nymphs-chirk-castle