Thomas Woolner

Thomas Woolner (17 December 1825 - 7 October 1892) was an English sculptor and poet. One of the members of the Brotherhood of the Pre-Raphaelites, a close friend of Alfred Tennyson. The statue of Sir Stamford Raffles made by Thomas Wolner. Raffles is considered the founder of modern Singapore. Born in Suffolk, England, from 1843 exhibited his work at the Royal Academy of Arts. In 1875 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy. Thomas Woolner did not share the love of the Pre-Raphaelites for the Middle Ages, but fully agreed with the principle of "loyalty to nature", which was proclaimed by John Roskin. In his works, Woolner from the beginning paid special attention to artistic detail. Gained fame thanks to his busts and engravings. For a time he was forced to emigrate to Australia, but then returned to the UK, where he established himself as a sculptor and art dealer. The most famous sculptures are "Civilization" and "Virgil", where Woolner tried to reflect the tense state of man and the dynamics of human feelings. Virgilia is the wife of the protagonist in William Shakespeare's tragedy Coriolanus. Shakespeare borrowed the plot of Plutarch's manuscript about the Roman general Coriolanus (V century) and his struggle against the rebels.