Edward Pierce (ca. 1635 - 1695)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

The sculptor and architect Edward Pierce was born c.1635 and became a freeman of the Painter-Stainers’ Company in London in 1656. He acquired a considerable reputation for carving in wood and stone, sculpting terracotta busts of John Milton and Oliver Cromwell. After the Fire of 1666, Christopher Wren employed Pierce to do carving for the churches he was rebuilding in the city of London. He also carved decorative carvings in St Paul’s Cathedral and at Whitehall Palace.

Pierce executed stone or marble statues of Elizabeth I and Edward III for the Royal Exchange, and Henry V for the Goldsmiths’ Company (all now destroyed). Apart from his commissions in London, he provided carving for fountains (1690) at Hampton Court Palace. The marble bust of Sir Christopher Wren that Pierce carved in 1673 is often considered his masterpiece. A plaster cast of this work is in the RA collection and shows Pierce to have been one of the finest portraitists of the 17th century.

Pierce died in 1695.