Albert Toft
Albert Toft (3 June 1862 – 18 December 1949) was a British sculptor.
Albert Toft | |
|---|---|
Albert Toft by George Clausen | |
| Born | 3 June 1862 Handsworth, Staffordshire, England |
| Died | 18 December 1949 (aged 87) Worthing, Sussex, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | South Kensington Schools |
| Occupation | Sculptor |
Toft's career was dominated by public commemorative commissions in bronze, mostly single statues of military or royal figures. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, Boer War to 1902, and then World War I to 1918, provided plentiful commissions. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Toft as one of the major figures of the "New Sculpture" movement following on from William Hamo Thornycroft and George Frampton. Toft described his work as 'Idealist' but he also said of himself that "to become an idealist you must necessarily first be a realist."
His father was a notable modeller in ceramics, and his brother was the landscape artist Joseph Alfonso Toft.