Andrew Currie (sculptor)

Robert the Bruce statue at Stirling Castle
James Hogg monument at St Mary's Loch
The Mungo Park Monument in Selkirk, Scotland by Andrew Currie

Andrew Currie (1812-1891) was a 19th-century Scottish sculptor and antiquarian. His most noted works are the statue of James Hogg at St Mary’s Loch (1860) (sometimes called the Ettrick Shepherd), the statue of Robert the Bruce on the esplanade at Stirling Castle (1876), and the figures of Edie Ochiltree and Old Mortality on the Scott Monument.[1]

Life

He was born in the Ettrick Forest area, the son of a Howford sheep farmer, in 1812. He was apprenticed as a mill-wright in Denholm.[2]

He is known to have attended Yarrow church with James Hogg and knew him personally, adding greatly to the authenticity of his later statue to him.

After initially travelling south to London and working in the Chatham Dockyard he returned to Scotland in 1839 and continued to work as a mill-wright in Earlston until his forties, but then began his career as a sculptor.[3]

Only aged 43 did he begin exhibiting at the Royal Scottish Academy.[3] He exhibited from 1855 to 1877.

Around 1857 he moved to Darnick, operating a workshop in the grounds of Darnick Tower.

He converted to Catholicism in 1864.

He died in 1891 and is buried in Weirhill Cemetery in Melrose.[4]

Other known works

References

  1. ↑ "The Character Statues". Retrieved 24 December 2014.
  2. ↑ Carving History: The Life and Works of Andrew Currie by Bob Johnstone
  3. 1 2 3 http://ssah.org.uk/files/2013/06/SSAH_newsletter_08-12.pdf
  4. ↑ "History of Darnick". Retrieved 24 December 2014.

External links

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