He was the son of John Brodie, a Banff shipmaster, and elder brother of Alexander Brodie (1830–1867), also a sculptor. When he was about six years old, his family moved to Aberdeen. William Brodie was later apprenticed to a plumber, studying in his spare time at the Mechanic's Institute, where he amused himself by casting lead figures of well-known people. He soon began to model small medallion portraits which attracted the attention of John Hill Burton. It was Burton who encouraged him to go to Edinburgh in 1847. Here Brodie studied for four years at the Trustees' School of Design, learning to model on a larger scale, and also executing a bust of one of his earliest patrons, Lord Jeffrey.[1] At this time he lived at 14 Heriot Place in the Lauriston district of Edinburgh.[2]
About 1853 he went to Rome, where he studied under Lawrence Macdonald, and it was with the latter's assistance that he modelled "Corinna, the Lyric Muse", a work which Copeland reproduced in miniature in Parian four years later. He was elected Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) in 1857, and Royal Scottish Academician in 1859. In 1876 he was appointed secretary of the RSA, a post he held until his death.
In 1875, he made the group of "A Peer and His Lady Doing Homage" for the Prince Consort Memorial in Edinburgh.
Brodie exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1850–1881, and at the Royal Scottish Academy, 1847–1881; at the Great Exhibition of 1851 he showed a group of "Little Nell and Her Grandfather" (characters from Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop). His most famous work is probably the Greyfriars Bobby Fountain.
Brodie died at his home at 9 Cambridge Street,[3] Edinburgh, on 30 October 1881. He is buried with his wife and daughter in the Dean Cemetery under a simple granite monument surmounted by an urn, unlike his far grander monuments to others around him. The grave lies on the north side of the main east-west path, west of the large Beattie obelisk. The urn bears a carving of a caterpillar being reborn as a butterfly, a Greek symbol indicating a belief in reincarnation or a second life beyond death.
Brodie was married to Helen Chisholm (1817–1886). Their daughter Mary Brodie married the Edinburgh architect, Sir James Gowans. Both are buried with him in Dean Cemetery.
Statue of Dr Thomas Graham, George Square, Glasgow (1872)
The Greyfriars Bobby Fountain on the corner of George IV Bridge and Candlemaker Row in Edinburgh (1872)
Statue of St. Andrew on the Life Insurance Building, 28–36 Renfield Street Glasgow (1872). Opposite a statue of St. Mungo by G E Ewing. Demolished 1929.
Bust of Mrs Farquharson of Invercauld (exhibited RSA 1873)
Figure of "Young Scholar" on the Buchanan Institute, Greenhead Street, Glasgow (1873)
Monument to Dr Thomas Guthrie in St Columba's Free Church on Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh (1873)
Moquette for statue of David Livingstone to stand in George Square Glasgow for a competition. This model is now within the David Livingstone Museum at High Blantyre (1875).
The carving of the "Moffat Ram" on the William Colvin Drinking Fountain, Moffat (1875).
Monument to Dr Thomas Guthrie, St. John's Church, Princes St, Edinburgh (1875)
Figures of "The Nobility" and a bronze relief scene from the Great Exhibition on the Prince Albert Memorial in Charlotte Square, Edinburgh (1876) (main figure by Sir John Steell commissioned in 1865, unveiled in 1876).
Statuary group "The Genius of Architecture crowning the Theory and Practice of Art" now in Princes Street Gardens but originally in Sir James Gowans house on Napier Road in Merchiston, Edinburgh ("Rockville") now demolished. Date unknown. Probably built with the house, possibly as a wedding present to Gowans as his son-in-law (see above).
Bust of James Nelson, Glasgow Art Gallery (date unknown)
Bust of Professor John Stuart Blackie, Scottish National Portrait Gallery (date unknown)
Bust of Robert Herdman, Scottish National Portrait Gallery (date unknown)
Robert Bryson, 1878
Hercules, a bronze statue in Portmeirion
The Genius Of Architecture Rewarding At Once The Science And The Practice Of The Art in Edinburgh
The John Spier memorial, now at Beith Auld Kirk.
John Graham-Gilbert, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
Buchanan Memorial, Dean Cemetery (Brodie's largest work)
John Hill Burton on his wife's grave in Dean Cemetery, 1881
Corinna, a 1859 photo
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Brodie, William (1815-1881)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
