Elected RSA: 10 July 1829
Sir John Steell was born in Aberdeen in 1804 but moved to Edinburgh the following year. Having shown an interest in modelling he was apprenticed to his father as a woodcarver and placed as a student in the Board’s School of Design. Upon finishing his apprenticeship, he began his career as a sculptor and shortly afterwards went to Rome where he studied for a short time.
On his return to Edinburgh his first work was modelling the group of Alexander and Bucephalus which was cast in bronze and placed in St Andrews Square. It is now located outside of the City Chambers in Edinburgh. In 1838 he was appointed Her Majesty’s Sculptor for Scotland and in 1876 was Knighted by the Queen at Holyrood.
His monumental sculpture of Queen Victoria can still be admired on top of the Royal Scottish Academy building in Edinburgh.
