A bust of E. H. Baily by E. G. Papworth Jr is on display in the People Gallery
Mr Baily looks very sinister in this light Photo by Jacky G
Edward Hodges Baily (1788 - 1867) was a sculptor born in Downend, Bristol.
Baily's father was a renowned carver of figureheads for ships, and Baily had started to follow in his fathers footsteps on a similar commercial path. However Baily leaned strongly towards his artistic abilities, having produced wax busts of his school fellows as a boy. After working from age fourteen in a mercantile house, he abandoned his career at age sixteen and began executing portraits in wax.
In 1807, after John Flaxman was shown two Homeric studies that Baily had executed for a friend, the celebrated sculptor took the latter on as a student in London.
In 1809 Baily entered the Royal Academy Schools.