Matthew Digby Wyatt

(b London, 1777; d London, 3 Jan 1862). Sculptor and painter, son of (2) James Wyatt. He was educated at Eton. When he was 20 he began painting portrait miniatures and, with his father's encouragement, he branched out into large-scale decorative painting. He obtained several important commissions from his father, including the ceiling of the Concert Room in Hanover Square, London (1803; destr.), allegorical panels in the dining-room at Carlton House, London (1804; destr.), for the Prince Regent (later George IV) and decorations in the state apartments at Windsor Castle (c. 1805-11; destr.). About 1815 he gave up painting to concentrate on sculpture. His first public commission was for the Nelson monument in Liverpool (1807-13). This was designed by Wyatt but Richard Westmacott (ii) cast the bronze statue itself. After the Battle of Waterloo, Wyatt occupied himself with megalomaniac but unexecuted proposals for a national 'Tropheum' to honour the achievements of British arms. He made his name with the memorial to Princess Charlotte (1796-1817) in St George's Chapel, Windsor (1820-24). The work unites the Baroque with the Neo-classical; the soul of the Princess floats up to heaven amid marble clouds, while her heavily shrouded corpse lies on a slab below, attended by four life-size mourners. This monument had no real precursor in English funerary art; it is likely that it was inspired by Arthur William Devis's painting of the Apotheosis of Princess Charlotte in Esher Church, Surrey. A few years later Wyatt repeated the formula in the monument to Elizabeth Manners, 5th Duchess of Rutland, at Belvoir Castle, Leics (completed 1828).

Part of the Wyatt family

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt (28 July 1820 – 21 May 1877) was a British architect and art historian who became Secretary of the Great Exhibition, Surveyor of the East India Company and the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge.^[1]

Born in Rowde, Wyatt trained as an architect in the office of his elder brother, Thomas Henry Wyatt. He assisted Isambard Kingdom Brunel on the London terminus of the Great Western Railway at Paddington Station (1854) and later designed a considerable expansion to the Bristol station, Bristol Temple Meads (1871–8). He also enlarged and rebuilt Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge (Now the Judge Institute of Management; 1866). He designed the Rothschild Mausoleum in the Jewish Cemetery at West Ham.^[2]

He was appointed to the post of Surveyor of the East India Company in 1855, shortly before its role in governing India was taken over by the Crown, and subsequently became Architect to the Council of India. In this role he designed the interiors of the India Office in London (now part of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office; 1867) and the Royal Indian Engineering College (now the Runnymede campus of Brunel University; 1871–3).

See also

• Wyatts, an architectural dynasty
• The Pitt Club in Cambridge, designed by Wyatt

References

1. ^ Wyatt, Matthew Digby in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
2. ^ Sharman Kadish, Jewish Heritage in England: An Architectural Guide, English Heritage, 2006, p. 35.

External links

• Matthew Digby Wyatt at the Duke University Dictionary of Art Historians

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