Sir Charles Wheeler

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Wheeler, Sir Charles (1892–1974). British sculptor (and occasional painter). He was born in Codsall, Staffordshire, and studied at Wolverhampton School of Art, 1908–12, and the Royal College of Art, 1912–17. Wheeler did many portrait busts, but the major part of his output was devoted to public sculpture; his biggest commission was for the Bank of England, for which he did various works between 1930 and 1937, including three bronze doors and a series of giant stone figures on the exterior. His style could be rather ponderous, and Dennis Farr writes that ‘Wheeler was at his best when applying his lyrical academicism to smaller-scale work, although his bronze group for the Jellicoe Fountain, Trafalgar Square (begun in the late 1930s, unveiled 1938), with its Scandinavian air, is a delightful monument in a period not well endowed in this respect’ (English Art 1870–1940, 1978). From 1956 to 1966 Wheeler was president of the Royal Academy. The most notable event of his presidency was the controversial sale of the Academy's greatest treasure, Leonardo da Vinci's cartoon of The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist (now in the National Gallery); fear that the masterpiece would leave Britain ‘provoked extensive press and public obloquy', but the sale ‘did secure the [Academy's] finances for almost the next 20 years’ (DNB). The matter is discussed at length in Wheeler's autobiography, High Relief, published in 1968. His wife, Muriel Bourne, was a painter and sculptor.

Wheeler, Sir Charles (b Codsall, Staffordshire, 14 Mar. 1892; d Mayfield, Sussex, 22 Aug. 1974). British sculptor (and occasional painter). He produced many portrait busts, but the major part of his output was devoted to public sculpture; his biggest commission was for the Bank of England, for which he did various works between 1930 and 1937, including three bronze doors and a series of giant stone figures on the exterior. From 1956 to 1966 he was president of the Royal Academy. The most notable event of his presidency was the controversial sale (1962) of the Academy's greatest treasure, Leonardo da Vinci's cartoon of the Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist (now in the National Gallery); fear that the masterpiece would leave Britain ‘provoked extensive press and public obloquy’, but the sale ‘did secure the [Academy's] finances for almost the next 20 years’ (DNB). The matter is discussed at length in Wheeler's autobiography, High Relief, published in 1968. See also National Art Collections Fund.