Baron Carlo Marochetti (1805-67)

Carlo Marochetti (1805–67) was an Italian-born sculptor who ranked among the favourite artists of Queen Victoria (1819–1901) and Prince Albert (1819–1861). The royal couple acquired or commissioned fifteen of his works, including portrait busts exchanged as birthday gifts. Marochetti was also responsible for their private tomb effigy at the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore, Windsor.

Of aristocratic lineage, Baron Marochetti trained and worked in Rome and Paris before establishing himself in France, where he enjoyed the patronage of several members of the French royal family. Like many artists, he fled to England shortly before the outbreak of the 1848 Revolution which ended the rule of King Louis-Philippe I (1773–1850). Thanks to the close links between the French and English royal families, Marochetti was able to secure his first English royal commission relatively quickly: a bust of Prince Albert (RCIN 31628). Queen Victoria considered the likeness 'extremely successful', and Marochetti soon became a favourite sculptor of the royal couple. Commissions in the years that followed included a statue of their third son, Prince Arthur (RCIN 2076) as well as bust of the queen herself (RCIN 2077).

Marochetti was described by Queen Victoria as 'agreeable, pleasing & gentlemanlike', and their friendship is clearly evident in their correspondence. With Prince Albert's support, he produced a colossal equestrian bronze statue of Richard I, now beside the Houses of Parliament. The bronze was his most celebrated work in England, and a reduced copy of the statue is in the Royal Collection (RCIN 44114). After the Prince's sudden death in 1861, it was Marochetti whom the Queen selected to carve Albert's marble effigy for the Royal Mausoleum at Frogmore, in Windsor Great Park. Her own effigy was added to the monument after her death forty years later.

Marochetti died suddenly in France in 1867. Following his death, Queen Victoria acquired his statuette of Edward, the Black Prince (RCIN 2121), which she presented to her son, Albert Edward, the future Edward VII (1841–1910).