Richard Claude Belt

Richard Claude Belt 1882

Monument to Lord Byron in Hyde Park

Richard Claude Belt (born June 26, 1851 in Westminster (London) ; died 17 November 1920 in Kensington (London) ) was a British sculptor .

Life

Belt was the son of Maidstone , Kent , a candle maker, Eliza Belt. After training at the Royal Academy of Arts , he trained as a wood sculptor with William Plows and made marble ornaments in the studio of John Henry Foley from 1869 to 1870 . He then worked as an assistant to the sculptor Charles Bennett Lawes , whom he knew through Foley and whose partner he became. From 1975 Belt successfully ran his own studio and received numerous commissions for portrait busts and monuments. These included, in particular, a memorial to the poet Lord Byron in Park Lane near Hyde Park and a statue of Queen Anne in front of St. Paul's Cathedral . He also exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy.

Caricature by Lawes (“Athlete and Sculptor”) from Vanity Fair , 1883

He became known to the general public through a lawsuit between himself and his former partner Charles Bennett Lawes. On August 20, 1881, Vanity Fair magazine had claimed in an anonymous article that the monument and other works were not by Belt's hand, but that his work was actually carried out by two other sculptors named Thomas Brock and Pierre Verheyden between 1876 and 1881 be. Lawes added in a letter to the editor on September 24th:

“I am sure I am expressing the sentiments of the sculpture as a whole when I say that we are deeply indebted to them for exposing and publishing the true career of Mr. Belt. It has long been known among us that he is nothing but a trickster, and by giving us the opportunity to make it known publicly, I think it became possible to dismiss the semblance of “colleague envy” with which he was so successful.

There is one more thing we would like to do, and that is to face Mr. Belt and his "influential friends" in court and convince them of the truth of the last allegations we made in this magazine. "

The wish was granted and Belt brought libel suits against Lawes and Vanity Fair, but only pursued those against Lawes. The resulting proceedings dragged on for 43 sessions between January and December 1882 and were followed closely by the public as numerous prominent customers for Belt and numerous prominent members of the Royal Academy for Lawes appeared on the stand. Eventually Belt was ruled in favor and Lawes was ordered to pay £ 5,000 in damages, an unusually large sum at the time. Lawes appealed where the payment was reduced to £ 500, provided both parties agreed. Belt agreed, but Lawes moved on to the appeals court, where the original sum was re-awarded in 1884. Lawes was unable to pay the £ 5,000 fine or the additional £ 5,000 in court costs incurred and was declared bankrupt. In fact, Lawes' allegations seem to have had a factual background and the question that actually had to be decided in court was the extent to which an artist may commission others to carry out work without being deemed to be the creator of the work in question.

At the time of the trial, Belt was becoming acquainted with a young lady named Constance Lloyd , who would later become Oscar Wilde's wife , who was apparently considering him as a future husband. Nothing came of that, however, because Belt now ran into financial difficulties, had to file for bankruptcy and soon afterwards stood before the court himself as a defendant. Sir William Neville Abdy had loaned Belt £ 2,000 which Belt could not repay. Belt now knew a Mrs. Morphy, who, according to Belt, had lived in a sultan's harem and had received precious diamonds from him, which she was now forced to sell, and Belt offered herself as a broker for a commission in a corresponding transaction. The deal came about. But when Sir William discovered that he had only bought cheap stones from a pawn shop, he charged Bell with fraud. On March 8, 1886, Belt was found guilty and sentenced to twelve months of forced labor. A year earlier, Oscar Wilde was charged with the "crime" of sodomy and sentenced to two years of forced labor.

By 1900 Belt retired and lived in Surbiton in south-west London. In the years that followed, however, he returned to sculpture and made a portrait bust of Lord Kitchener , which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1917.

Belt was married to Georgina Amelia Lane Belt (1855-1922). He died in 1920. His tomb with the urns of himself, his wife and his younger brother Walter George Belt (1856–1934), who was indicted with him at the time and then acquitted, is in Golders Green Crematorium , London.

literature

• Richard Claude Belt . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 7, Saur, Munich a. a. 1993, ISBN 3-598-22747-7 , p. 1954.
• Richard Claude Belt . In: Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951. University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, 2011, online , accessed March 2, 2017.
• Franny Moyle: Constance: The Tragic & Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde. Pegasus 2012, ISBN 978-1-60598-381-3 , chap. 2, fn. 5.
• John Sankey: The sculptor's ghost - the case of Belt v. Lawes. In: Sculpture Journal . Vol. 16, No. 2 (2007), pp. 84-89.

Web links

Commons : Richard Claude Belt  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Case Richard and Walter Belt, 1886 , Proceedings of the Old Bailey , accessed March 2, 2017.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The work produced by Belt is a replica of the group of sculptures created by Francis Bird (1667–1731) in 1712 .
2. ↑ I am sure that I am expressing the feeling of the whole profession of sculptors when I say that we are extremely obliged to you for finding out and publishing the true history of Mr. Belt's career. We have always known him to be nothing but an “artistic” impostor, and, by giving us an opportunity of expressing ourselves publicly on the matter, we have been enabled, I think, to remove the imputation of “professional jealousy” upon which he so successfully traded. There is one thing more that we should like to do, and that is to meet Mr. Belt and his “influential friends” in a court of justice, and satisfy the latter of the truth of the assertions we have lately made in your paper.
3. ↑ William Neville Abdy, 2nd Baronet of Abdy (1844-1910).
4. ↑ Richard Belt's Tomb , accessed March 2, 2017.