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Professor Thomas Woolner (1825-1892) was an English sculptor and poet. Born in Hadleigh, Suffolk he was a founder-member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Woolner trained with the sculptor William Behnes, exhibiting work at the Royal Academy from 1843. Woolner's classical inclinations were rather difficult to reconcile with Pre- Raphaelite Medievalism, but his belief in close observation of nature was consistent with their aims. Woolner's sculptures immediately after the foundation of the Brotherhood in 1848 display close attention to detail. He made his name with forceful portrait busts and medallions, but was at first unable to make a living. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1875 and served as professor of sculpture from 1877 to 1879. Woolner was also a poet of some reputation in his day. His early poem My Beautiful Lady (1866) is a Pre-Raphaelite work, emphasising intense unresolved moments of feeling. His later narrative works, Pygmalion, Silenus and Tiresius renounce Pre-Raphaelitism in favour of an often eroticised classicism.
