Kilmeny
Photograph of the sculpture of Kilmeny at Bankfield Museum, Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Author: J. B. Leyland
Date: 1835
Location: Halifax
Format: Postcard - Mono
Document ID: 100145
Library ID: 34559427
Joseph Bentley Leyland, born in Halifax 1811, sculpted Kilmeny. He started working in 1827 and by 1829 was commissioned to produce a bust of the minister at Northgate End Chapel.
After studying in London he returned to Halifax where he worked from a studio at the rear of the Union Cross Inn, Old Market Street. He later moved to 10 The Square, which became a meeting place for artists and poets including Branwell Bronte and William Dearden. The studio later became Halifax Marble Works, where he would produce more commercial work. Leyland died in 1851 at the age of 40 years.
Kilmeny was bought by the Halifax Literary and Philosophical Society for £80 and put on display at Bankfield Museum, where it stood for several years until it was destroyed in the 1950s.
