Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852)

This head was part of the original plaster model for the figure of Wellington on the equestrian statue on the Wellington monument, London. According to one early source, an admirer and collector of Stevens's work removed the head for safe-keeping: 'It has been preserved, since his [Stevens's] death, in the crypt of St Paul's; the casual visitor did not see it there, because it was covered up; and even when it was uncovered, the bad lights, its closeness to the wall, and the absence of the Duke's head, which Mr Stannus had sawn off, made it difficult to form an exact idea of the design and of its condition.'

A sculptor, designer and painter, Alfred Stevens (1817/18-1875) rejected contemporary distinctions between fine art and design. From 1850 to 1857 he was chief designer to Hoole & Co., Sheffield, where he produced award-winning designs for metalwork, majolica, terracotta ornaments and chimney-pieces. Perhaps his two greatest works were the decorations for the dining-room at Dorchester House, London (about 1856), for which he made countless drawings inspired by the Italian High Renaissance style, in particular the work of Michelangelo and the monument to the Duke of Wellington for St Paul's Cathedral, London, which was completed after his death. The two allegorical groups from this monument made a lasting impact on the New Sculpture movement.
The influence of the Italian Renaissance is evident in much of Steven's work, and is perhaps best reflected in the Wellington monument.

Although Stevens came equal fifth in the competition for the Wellington monument, the winner being the Scots sculptor William Calder Marshall (1813-1894), he was eventually given the commission as his design was felt to be more in keeping with the interior of St Paul's.