Sir Merton Russell-Cotes (1835-1921), JRFRGS, Mayor of Bournemouth (1891–1895)
Merton and Annie Russell-Cotes travelled to many countries. It had been suggested by a friend that when they were in Rome they should commission busts of themselves in marble. In his autobiography, Home and Abroad, Merton records ‘We … made the necessary arrangements with Signor Gazzeri, a sculptor of considerable fame to execute the work for us’.
Born in Modena in 1866, Ernesto Gazzeri later moved to Rome where, inspired by his classical surroundings, he became a marble sculptor of repute. He was known for sculptural portraits and funerary monuments, among some of his most celebrated works include his monument to renaissance philosopher Tommaso Campanella (1923) located in the Italian town of Stilo and the large scale The Mystery of Life statue (1928) at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Southern California. He also executed genre works and mythological subjects.
