Focus on this artwork and discuss the Background.
A memorial committee of the Institute of Civil Engineers commissioned the statue after Stephenson's death on 12 October 1859.  It was completed before Marochetti's death in 1867, but remained in storage while protracted discussions continued about an appropriate site to erect it and other statues.The Institute of Civil Engineers had also commissioned Marochetti to make a similar statue of Stephenson's rival engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, after Brunel's death a few weeks before Stephenson on 14 September 1859,  and then a third statue for the railway engineer Joseph Locke who died a year later, on 18 September 1860.  The intention was to erect the three statues together in a prominent position in Parliament Square, then known as the churchyard of St Margaret's, Westminster, near the statue of George Canning beside the offices of the Institute of Civil Engineers at One Great George Street.  After initially granting permission, the Office of Works decided against in 1868, reserving the space for statues of politicians.Ultimately the three statues were erected separately.  Marochetti's statue of Joseph Locke was installed in Locke Park, Barnsley, in 1866. The statue and its enclosure were listed at Grade II in 1986.  A copy is displayed in Barentin, France, where Locke designed a railway viaduct.  The statue of Brunel was erected in 1874 on the Victoria Embankment, at the west end of Temple Place, on a Portland stone pedestal with novel flanking screen walls and benches by the architect Richard Norman Shaw. It became a grade II listed building in 1958.
St Margaret's, Westminster Institute of Civil Engineers listed building Parliament Square Victoria Embankment Portland stone Isambard Kingdom Brunel Richard Norman Shaw statue of George Canning Temple Place Locke Park Barentin statue of Brunel One Great George Street statue of Joseph Locke Barnsley Office of Works Joseph Locke