# Joseph Else

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{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox artist
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| name             = Joseph Else
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| image            = Mr and Mrs Joseph Else.png
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| caption          = From The Graphic, 22 March 1930
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| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1874|02|08}}
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| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1955|05|08|1874|02|08}} 
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| nationality      = 
| residence        = 
| education        = [Nottingham School of Art](/source/Nottingham_School_of_Art) and [Royal College of Art](/source/Royal_College_of_Art)
| alma_mater       = 
| known_for        = Sculpture
| notable_works    = Sculpture on [Nottingham Council House](/source/Nottingham_Council_House)
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'''Joseph Else''' [FRBS](/source/Royal_British_Society_of_Sculptors) (8 February 1874 – 8 May 1955) was a sculptor from [Nottingham](/source/Nottingham)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1226573126 |title=Joseph Else |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851-1951 |access-date=18 March 2018 }}</ref> best known for his work on [Nottingham Council House](/source/Nottingham_Council_House).

==Career==

He was the son of William Else, a leather cutter, and Eliza Cowilshaw. He studied at [Nottingham School of Art](/source/Nottingham_School_of_Art) from 1890 to 1900 and then at the [Royal College of Art](/source/Royal_College_of_Art) in London. After leaving London he went to the [Belfast College of Art](/source/Belfast_College_of_Art) as professor of sculpture and lecturer in anatomy.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=The Art and Work of Joseph Else FRBS |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001898/19390823/148/0006 |newspaper=Nottingham Journal |location=England |date=23 August 1939 |access-date=18 March 2018 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

He began teaching at the [Nottingham School of Art](/source/Nottingham_School_of_Art) around 1919 and in 1922 was made principal, in succession to Joseph Harrison, a position he held until 1939.<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Fine Tribute to Worth of Mr. J Else. |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001898/19390629/200/0007 |newspaper=Nottingham Journal |location=England |date=29 June 1939 |access-date=18 March 2018 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref> It was during this tenure that he created some of his most famous sculpture for the new Nottingham Council House, with a work called Justice, and the two lions flanking the main entrance steps. He also created War Memorials for the Law Society, and Messrs. Thomas Forman and Sons, the bronze tablet on the Nottingham Castle sundial in memory of the fallen of the 17th Battalion [Sherwood Foresters](/source/Sherwood_Foresters), the Bonington bronze tablet at Arnold, the Lancashire Memorial of Messrs. J.B. Lewis and Company, the bust of Samuel Morley in Nottingham Arboretum, and the figure on St Luke’s House. In London he completed the sculptural decoration on Selfridges building on Oxford Street.

He was a fierce critic of the modernist style of sculpture, and railed against works produced by [Jacob Epstein](/source/Jacob_Epstein). In a lecture at the Nottingham Society of Artists in 1928 he said <blockquote>I feel apologetic for mentioning these abnormalities and would not have done so were it not for the wide publicity accorded to them. To me, it is an affront to the intelligence to suggest that you should admire works so destitute of beauty and so fearful in character. Can things of this description live as the masterpieces of the ancients have done?<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Ugly Modern Sculpture. Mr. J. Else lectures in Nottingham. 'Repulsive' art of Epstein|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001898/19281115/132/0005 |newspaper=Nottingham Journal |location=England |date=15 November 1928 |access-date=22 March 2018 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref></blockquote>

He maintained his studio in [Beeston](/source/Beeston%2C_Nottinghamshire). He was appointed an associate member of the [Royal Society of British Sculptors](/source/Royal_Society_of_British_Sculptors) in 1923 and in 1938 was elected a Fellow. On retirement from Nottingham in 1939 he moved to [Newnham on Severn](/source/Newnham_on_Severn) in Gloucestershire. The outbreak of the [Second World War](/source/Second_World_War) restricted access to materials for sculpture. He became a member of the [British Bryological Society](/source/British_Bryological_Society), and prepared hundreds of illustrations for ''A Histology of British Mosses''.<ref>{{cite journal |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=1956 |title=Obituary |journal=Transactions of the British Bryological Society |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=130–135 |doi= 10.1179/006813856804829732|doi-access=free }}</ref>

He died on 8 May 1955. He is commemorated in the naming of a public house, The Joseph Else, at 11-12 South Parade, Nottingham.

==Works==
[[File:Ccl-hse-lion-left-sml.jpg|thumb|Left lion, [Nottingham Council House](/source/Nottingham_Council_House)]]

*Portrait bust, displayed at the [Royal Academy of Arts](/source/Royal_Academy_of_Arts) 1910<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Royal Academy |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/19100506/041/0007 |newspaper=Nottingham Evening Post |location=England |date=6 May 1910 |access-date=19 March 2018 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
*Bust of William Kiddier, displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts 1915
*Model of a War Memorial proposed for Ryde, Isle of Wight 1919<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Royal Academy |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000250/19190522/137/0004 |newspaper=Sheffield Daily Telegraph |location=England |date=22 May 1919 |access-date=19 March 2018 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
*Bust of Thomas Barrett, displayed at Nottingham Castle Museum 1921
*War Memorial, Nottingham Incorporated Law Society 1921<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Law Society Memorial |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/19210725/011/0002 |newspaper=Nottingham Evening Post |location=England |date=25 July 1921 |access-date=19 March 2018 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
*Sculpture of ''A Mask'', displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts 1925<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Royal Academy |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000250/19250711/408/0009 |newspaper=Sheffield Daily Telegraph |location=England |date=11 July 1925 |access-date=19 March 2018 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
*Sculpture of ''Sacrificium'', displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts 1926<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Northern Art |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000250/19260717/385/0009 |newspaper=Sheffield Daily Telegraph |location=England |date=17 July 1926 |access-date=19 March 2018 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
*Sculpture of ''Gladius Sertumque'', displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts 1927<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Nottingham Sculpture |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000321/19270430/024/0006 |newspaper=Nottingham Evening Post |location=England |date=30 April 1927 |access-date=19 March 2018 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
*Bust of [Samuel Morley](/source/Samuel_Morley_(MP)), [Nottingham Arboretum](/source/Nottingham_Arboretum) 1928
*Memorial bronze to [Richard Parkes Bonington](/source/Richard_Parkes_Bonington), Arnold, Nottingham 1929<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Honour Delayed |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001898/19291107/117/0006 |newspaper=Nottingham Journal |location=England |date=7 November 1929 |access-date=19 March 2018 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
*Left Lion, [Nottingham Council House](/source/Nottingham_Council_House) 1929
*Right Lion, Nottingham Council House 1929
*Frieze on The Old Industries of Nottingham, Nottingham Council House 1929<ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1270582 |desc=Council House, Exchange Buildings and Adjoining Shops and Bank |access-date=18 March 2018 |mode=cs2}}</ref> 
*Commerce on Nottingham Council House 1929
*Sculpture of ''Youth'', displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts 1932
*Sculpture of ''The Sun Worshipper'' (''L'Adortrice de Soleil''), displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts 1932
*Sculpture of St Luke, St Luke’s House, Friar Lane, Nottingham 1933<ref>{{cite book |last=Harwood |first=Elain |date=2008 |title=Pevsner Architectural Guides. Nottingham |publisher=Yale University Press|page=64 |isbn=9780300126662 }}</ref>
*Panel of ''The Ride of the Valkyries'', displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts 1933<ref>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Notts. Exhibits for Academy |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001898/19330424/168/0009 |newspaper=Nottingham Journal |location=England |date=24 April 1933 |access-date=19 March 2018 |via=British Newspaper Archive |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
{{Incomplete list|date=March 2018}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Else, Joseph}}
Category:1874 births
Category:1955 deaths
Category:Alumni of Nottingham School of Art
Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Art
Category:Artists from Nottingham
Category:British architectural sculptors
Category:British male sculptors
Category:Fellows of the Royal British Society of Sculptors
Category:Members of the British Bryological Society

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Joseph Else](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Else) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Else?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.