The Edward V. Valentine Sculpture Studio

Built in the early 1830s as a carriage house and stable at nearby 809 East Leigh Street, this building was purchased by sculptor Edward Valentine in 1871. He installed a skylight and large window in the north wall to create a studio with the indirect natural light favored by artists, and he worked there for nearly forty years. By 1889, his success had made the space too small for his many commissions and assistants, so he added a larger annex for casting and marble carving, while the original structure remained a modeling studio and a place to receive guests, teach students, and conduct business. After Valentine’s death in 1930, the former carriage house was threatened with demolition but was rescued, dismantled, and rebuilt here in 1936. It is now one of only four nineteenth century sculptors’ studios in the US open to the public, preserving a large collection of original artwork in the setting where it was created, along with the sculptor’s tools and personal effects, and the large window still illuminates Edward Valentine’s sculpture. Edward Virginius Valentine, who lived from 1838 to 1930, had a celebrated fifty-year career producing portrait busts, ideal figures, and monumental public sculptures in clay, plaster, marble, and bronze. Beginning in 1859, he lived and studied in Germany, France, and Italy under European artists including August Kiss, but he achieved renown in Richmond through numerous private and public commissions completed between 1865 and 1910. His prolific studio became a popular tourist destination visited by Oscar Wilde, Joseph Jefferson, and Edwin Booth. In 1892, following the final wishes of his older brother, Mann S. Valentine Jr., Edward and his nephews established the Valentine Museum; from its opening in 1898 until his death in 1930, he served as its president and left his sculpture, papers, furniture, and memorabilia to the museum.

Richmond, Virginia · United States