A sculptor in marble, primarily of female portrait and Classical busts. Henry Garland was baptised on 10th May 1829 in Exeter. In the 1851 census his occupation was recorded as a carver and gilder in Exeter but by late 1853 he was at 32 Molyneux Street, Marylebone, London, and noted as a ‘Sculpturer’ when he married on 31st December at St Mary’s, Bryanston Square, to 18-year-old Harriet Harris. She was then also of Molyneux Street, daughter of a farrier called William Harris, and was born early in 1835 at Parham, north Devon. Their son William was born at 7 William (now Netley) Street, Regents Park, on 1st August 1855. Two daughters followed, Jane on 16th April 1858 and Edith in February 1860: both were apparently born at 5 John Street, Chelsea, where the family was living at the 1861 census. Probably because thought unlikely to live, William was privately baptised aged 17 days (at Christchurch, St Pancras) and only formally received into the church at Jane’s baptism on 14th August 1863 at St Luke’s, Chelsea, when she was already five. Edith had been baptised at Chelsea aged nine months in November 1860.
The similarity of some of Garland’s Classical busts to examples by the American sculptor, Hiram Powers, who became celebrated in Europe after moving to Florence in 1837, suggests the fashionable market for which he was working. Another way he also appealed to it was by adopting a spuriously Italian 'alter ego' and signing work ‘H. Guirlandi’ rather than ‘H. Garland’, though both inscribed in identical letter forms. Online search produces more of the former than the latter, so the tactic seems to have been effective and until well after his death. On 16th April 1921, for example, the Bucks Herald advertised a bust of Queen Alexandra on a pedestal for sale (10 guineas) by ‘the famous Italian sculptor, H. Guirlandi’: another version, dated to about 1883 and presented to the National Portrait Gallery in 1939, is signed ‘H. Garland’.
Garland only appears to have done female busts (except possibly children). The predominance of Classical types, plus the ‘Guirlandi’ signature and a lack of known exhibition after 1878, suggest he was mainly meeting a decorative demand. As it also seems unlikely that he could have passed for an Italian in person, his ‘Guirlandi’ pieces may have been sold indirectly through furnisher/decorators who supplied or sub-contracted for such items. Note that there was also a slightly younger painter called Henry Garland (1834–1913).
Summarised from Art UK's Art Detective discussion 'Is Henry Garland the sculptor of this bust?'
Text source: Art Detective
