{{Short description|British artist (1827–1873)}} {{Use British English|date=January 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Susan Durant | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name = | birth_date = 8 July 1827 | birth_place = Stamford Hill, England | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1873|1|1|1827|7|8}} | death_place = Paris, France | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = | residence = | education = | alma_mater = | known_for = Sculpture | notable_works = | style = | movement = | spouse = | partner = | awards = | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website = | module = }} '''Susan Durant Durant'''<ref>''UK, Naturalisation Certificates and Declarations, 1870–1916''</ref> (8 July 1827 – 1 January 1873) was a British artist and sculptor. She was one of the first female sculptors to achieve critical and financial success in Victorian Britain.<ref name="DGlaze">{{cite book|author=Delia Glaze|publisher=Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers|year=1997|title=Dictionary of Women Artists Volume 1 A-I|isbn=1-884964-21-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofwome01gaze}}</ref> Durant created a substantial body of work, often in marble and featuring characters from English literature or the Bible, but much of which has been lost.<ref name="DGlaze"/>
==Biography== Durant was born in Stamford Hill in Middlesex, now part of London, to George and Mary Durant, ''née'' Dugdale, who were both from Devon.<ref name="ODNB17">{{cite ODNB |id=59114 |first=Andrea |last=Garrihy |title=Durant, Susan Durant}}</ref> George Durant was a successful silk broker and on at least one occasion the family spent a winter in Rome which encouraged Susan Durant's interest in sculpture.<ref name="ODNB17"/>
She moved to Paris where she trained in the studio of Baron Henri de Triqueti.<ref name="Benezit4">{{cite book|publisher=Editions Grund, Paris|year=2006|title=Benezit Dictionary of Artists Volume 4 Cossintino-Dyck|isbn=2-7000-3074-5}}</ref> Although she established a studio in London, Durant frequently returned to Paris to work with de Triqueti either as his assistant or on common commissions.<ref name="ODNB17" /> In 1847 she was awarded the Isis silver medal of the Society of Arts for an original portrait bust.<ref name="NPGsdd">{{cite web |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp06920/susan-d-durant?role=art|title=Susan D Durant|access-date=8 January 2020|work=National Portrait Gallery}}</ref> From 1847 until her death, Durant frequently exhibited portrait busts at the Royal Academy in London, including a self-portrait in 1853.<ref name="Benezit4" /> In total Durant exhibited some 38 works at the Royal Academy.<ref name="SG0019">{{cite book|author=Sara Gray|publisher=Dark River|year=2019|title= British Women Artists. A Biographical Dictionary of 1000 Women Artists in the British Decorative Arts |isbn=978-1-911121-63-3}}</ref>
=== Notable works === Two works by Durant, ''The Chief Mourner'' and ''Belisarius'', were featured in the Great Exhibition held in London during 1851, and her statuette of Robin Hood was shown at the 1857 Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester.<ref name="Mackay">{{cite book|author=James Mackay|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club|year=1977|title=The Dictionary of Western Sculptors in Bronze }}</ref><ref name="SG0019"/> In 1857 she created a marble bust of the American author Harriet Beecher Stowe, which is now held at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Centre in Connecticut, while Castle Howard in Yorkshire has a plaster version.<ref name="ODNB17"/> The bust, showing Stowe garlanded with grape leaves and wearing a shawl fastened by a cameo broach of her husband, helped enhance Durant's reputation.<ref name="DGlaze"/> The Stowe portrait and a 1863 medallion of George Grote, held by University College, London, are among the two earliest known surviving portrait works by Durant.<ref name="DGlaze"/> In 1863 Durant was the only woman among the 14 artists commissioned by the Corporation of London to provide sculptures of figures from literature to decorate the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House. Her sculpture of ''The Faithfull Shepherdess'' earned Durant a fee of £500.<ref name="ODNB17"/>
The Faithful Shepherdess, (1863).<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Faithful Shepherdess Stock Photo |url=https://www.alamy.com/the-faithful-shepherdess1863-artist-susan-d-durant-image60087783.html |access-date=2026-03-08 |website=www.alamy.com |language=en|publisher=Alamy|first=Susan D|last=Durant|date=1863}}</ref>
Portrait of a Lady, (1866) Princess Alexandra or Princess Alice.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Portrait of a Lady |url=https://library.frick.org/discovery/fulldisplay?context=L&vid=01NYA_INST:Frick&search_scope=Frick&tab=SearchScopes&docid=alma991013624689907141 |access-date=2026-03-08 |website=library.frick.org |language=en}}</ref>
Through de Triqueti, Durant was introduced to members of the British Royal Family and received several commissions from Queen Victoria and, for a time, taught model making to Princess Louise.<ref name="Mackay" /><ref name="SG0019" /> Durant was commissioned to produce high-relief profiles on polychrome marble roundels of Victoria, Prince Albert and their children for the Albert Chapel in Windsor Castle.<ref name="DGlaze" /><ref name="Mackay" /> Reduced size copies were also cast in metal as official gifts, a set of which are in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London.<ref name="NPGsdd" /> The Queen commissioned Durant to produce a memorial to her uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium, for Saint George's Chapel in Windsor Castle.<ref name="Mackay" /> The monument, showing the king reclining with his hand on a lion in front of two angels in relief holding the flags of England and Belgium, was unveiled at Windsor in 1867 where it remained until 1879 when it was moved to Christ Church in Esher.<ref name="ODNB17" /> Durant's style of working further developed over time, becoming more naturalistic and further embracing the use of polychromatic marble, a technique promoted by de Triqueti, for example in her 1871 portrait of a child, ''Nina Lehmann''.<ref name="DGlaze" />
Ruth, (1869) was auctioned at Drouot.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Susan D. Durant (1827-1873)Ruth, 1869Whi... {{!}} Marble sculptures: bids |url=https://drouot.com/en/l/32032911-susan-d-durant-1827-1873-ruth-1869-white-marble-bust-signed |access-date=2026-03-08 |website=drouot.com |language=en}}</ref>
Durant became a collaborator on a pendant commissioned by Queen Victoria as a gift to Victoria Alexandrina Elizabeth Grey for her wedding in June 1877.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pendant by Carlo Giuliano and Susan Durant, 1877 |url=https://vamaf.org/our-work/acquisitions/pendant-by-carlo-giuliano-maker-and-susan-durant-sculptor-1877/ |access-date=2026-03-08 |website=V&A Americas Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref>
=== Death and legacy === thumb|Susan Durant's Gravestone in Père-Lachaise Cemetery|263x263px During her life, Durant promoted equal access for women to education, the vote and to professional careers.<ref name="DGlaze"/> Among her last known works was a bust, now lost, of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson.<ref name="DGlaze"/>
Durant never married but in 1869 had a son, Paul Harvey by de Triqueti.<ref name=MapSD>{{cite web |author=University of Glasgow History of Art / HATII|url=https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib7_1206632322 |title=Susan Durant |year=2011|access-date=8 January 2020|work=Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland 1851–1951}}</ref> She died of pleurisy in Paris in 1873 and is buried in that city's Pere Lachaise Cemetery.<ref name=MapSD/>
==Selected exhibitions== * 1847 Royal Academy, London;- Also in 1848 to 1853; 1856 to 1860, 1863, 1864, 1866 to 1869, 1872 and 1873 * 1851 Great Exhibition, London * 1857 Art Treasures Exhibition, Manchester * 1858 & 1863 Society of Female Artists * 1860 British Institution * 1862 International Exhibition, London.<ref name="DGlaze"/><ref name=MapSD/><ref name="SG0019"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Susan Durant}} * {{ArtUK bio}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Durant, Susan}} Category:1827 births Category:1873 deaths Category:19th-century English sculptors Category:19th-century English women artists Category:Artists from the London Borough of Hackney Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Category:English women sculptors Category:People from Stamford Hill Category:Sculptors from London