Alfred Gatley

Alfred Gatley (1816–1863) was an English sculptor.

Alfred Gatley was born at Kerridge, about two miles from Macclesfield in Cheshire, in 1816. As a child he learned the use of a stonemason's tools from his father, who owned and worked two quarries in the Kerridge hills. In 1837, helped by a few friends, he came to London and obtained employment in the studio of Edward Hodges Baily. He also studied in the British Museum, and two years later became a student of the Royal Academy, where he gained silver medals for modelling from the antique, and in 1841 for the first time exhibited a "Bust of a Gentleman".

In 1843 Gatley left Baily and became an assistant to Musgrave Watson. That year he sent a marble bust of "Hebe" to the Royal Academy, which was purchased by the Art Union of London and reproduced in bronze. In 1844 he received the silver medal for the best model from the life, and exhibited marble busts of "Cupid" and "Psyche", and in 1846 he exhibited a bust of Marshal Espartero, and a model in bas-relief of "The Hours leading out the Horses of the Sun", which went to the library of Britwell Court, Buckinghamshire. Also in 1846, his Memorial to John Whitaker was installed in Macclesfield. In 1848 he sent to the Royal Academy a bust of John Sumner, archbishop of Canterbury, and in 1850 that of Samuel Christie-Miller, who became his close friend. About 1851 he executed a bust of Richard Hooker, now in the Temple Church.

Although successful in this and other works, Gatley saw no prospect of earning an adequate income in England, and so went to Rome towards the end of 1852, where he took a studio on the Pincian Hill, and made the acquaintance of John Gibson, whose enthusiasm for Greek art he shared. Before long he completed a bust of "Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude", and began statues of "Echo" and "Night". A head in marble, "The Angel of Mercy", and a design for a mural monument were his contributions to the Royal Academy in 1853.

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