Thomas Stirling Lee


Thomas Stirling Lee was an English sculptor, specialising in reliefs and portrait heads.

Early life

Lee was born in Lambeth, London on 16 March 1857, the son of John Swanwick Lee, a surveyor. He was educated at Westminster School and then served as an apprentice in the studio of John Birnie Philip.
Lee studied at the Royal Academy Schools from 1876 to 1880, where he won both a Gold Medal and a Travelling Scholarship. In 1880–1881 he studied under Pierre-Jules Cavelier at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and then studied in Rome until 1883.

Career

Stirling Lee's commission for 28 panels for the exterior of St George's Hall, Liverpool, resulting from an open competition held by Liverpool City Council in 1882, is regarded as his most important, but it was the subject of controversy, when the first two featured naked girls, depicting "the child Justice" and "the girl Justice". Lee only completed six of the 28 panels, but was subsequently commissioned to make two, and oversee all, of a further set of six on the theme of 'National Prosperity'.
Stirling Lee cast a number of bronze portrait reliefs of friends and personalities. Examples are to be seen, e.g., in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and in private collections.
He was a member of the National Portrait Society from 1910 to 1915, building a studio in Chelsea, London. He was a member and twice chairman of the Chelsea Arts Club and a member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. Stirling Lee was an active member of the Art Workers' Guild and was elected Master in 1898.
Falling unconscious in the arcade at South Kensington Station, Stirling Lee died at St George's Hospital, Knightsbridge, London on 29 June 1916. His friends subscribed to a fund for a bronze panel on the family vault at New Southgate.

Works

Lee's work includes: