the Gods.’ His earliest exhibited works were at the Royal Academy in 1838, when he sent ‘Narcissus,’ ‘An Arcadian Nymph,’ ‘Maternal Love,’ and a bust, and these were followed in 1839 by ‘Diana’ and another bust. Early in the latter year he went to Italy, and worked for some time in Rome. After an absence of nearly three years he returned to England, and lived for a time in Exeter, where he executed a life-size statue in marble of Lord Rolle. He removed to London in 1842, and in 1843 was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Academy for a small relievo representing ‘The Battle of the Centaurs and Lapithæ.’ In 1845 he assisted in the decoration of the summer pavilion at Buckingham Palace. Two groups, ‘Satan Vanquished’ and ‘Satan tempting Eve,’ attracted some notice in the Great Exhibition of 1851. Apart from his busts, among which were those of Lord Palmerston, Bishop Phillpotts, the Earl of Devon, Earl Fortescue, Viscount Ebrington, and other persons of note, he contributed to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy many groups and statues—‘Eve contemplating Death’ in 1853; ‘The Angel,’ and ‘Evening: Going to the Bath,’ in 1861; the Earl of Lonsdale (now at Lowther Castle) in 1863; ‘Euphrosyne and Cupid’ in 1865; ‘Cupid's Cruise’ in 1867; ‘Blackberry Picking: the Thorn’ in 1870; ‘Zingari’ in 1871; ‘Eve's Dream’ in 1873; ‘The Bathers’ in 1877; statuettes of ‘Ophelia’ and ‘Lady Godiva’ in 1879; and ‘Shielding the Helpless’ in 1883.
Besides these works he executed in 1862 a colossal marble statue of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, placed on Northernhay, Exeter, where is also a seated statue in marble of John Dinham. His native city further possesses by him a colossal marble statue of Earl Fortescue, erected in the Castle Yard; a statue of the Earl of Devon in Bedford Circus, and one of the prince consort in the Albert Memorial Museum. His group in bronze of ‘The Deerstalker,’ exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1876, and generally regarded as his finest work, was purchased by public subscription and placed at the entrance to Northernhay. He produced also statues of Alfred the Great, for the Egyptian Hall of the Mansion House, London; the Duke of Bedford, for Tavistock; General Lord Saltoun, for Fraserburgh; Alfred Rooker, for Guildhall Square, Plymouth; Sir John Cordy Burrows, for Brighton; and a recumbent figure of Elizabeth, countess of Devon, for her monument in Powderham church, Devonshire. These were very successful works, and greatly increased his reputation.
Stephens was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1864, but it was generally believed that his election was due to his having been confounded with Alfred Stevens [q. v.], the sculptor of the Wellington monument in St. Paul's Cathedral. He died at 110 Buckingham Palace Road, London, on 10 Nov. 1882.
[Architect, 1882, ii. 315; Builder, 1882, ii. 669; Art Journal, 1882, p. 379; Pycroft's Art in Devonshire, 1883; Men of the Time, 1879; Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogues, 1838–83.]
STEPHENS, GEORGE (1800–1851), dramatist, was born at Chelsea on 8 March 1800. In 1835 he published ‘The Manuscript of Erdély,’ a romance, 3 vols. This was followed by ‘The Voice of the Pulpit, being Sermons on various subjects,’ 1839 (preface dated Bromley Hall, Herts, 28 Nov. 1838); ‘Gertrude and Beatrice, or the Queen of Hungary: a tragedy in five acts,’ 1839; and ‘Père La Chaise, or the Confessor,’ 1840, 3 vols.
On 26 Aug. 1841 his tragedy ‘Martinuzzi, or the Hungarian Daughter,’ was produced at the English Opera House (now the Lyceum Theatre). By the introduction of songs it was speciously converted into a musical drama, and brought out in evasion of the law which limited the performance of five-act dramas to the patent houses and the Haymarket. Samuel Phelps and Mrs. Warner took the chief rôles, and the piece kept the stage for a month, although the critics thought little of its merits. In 1846 he wrote ‘Dramas for the Stage,’ two privately printed volumes containing ‘Nero,’ ‘Forgery,’ ‘Sensibility,’ and ‘Philip Basil, or a Poet's Fate,’ four tragedies; ‘Self-Glorification,’ a Chinese play; and ‘Rebecca and her Daughter,’ a comedy. He also wrote the introduction to the ‘Church of England Quarterly Review,’ 1837 (i. 1–34), besides an article, ‘The Slumber of the Pulpit.’ His further works were ‘The Patriot, a tragedy,’ 1849; and ‘The Justification of War as the Medium of Civilisation,’ 1850. In later life he suffered reverses of fortune. He died at Pratt Terrace, Camden Town, London, on 15 Oct. 1851. His widow Ellen died on 11 Aug. 1866, aged 56. By her he had a son and daughter.
To Stephens have been attributed three works published under the pseudonym of ‘St. John Dorset.’ Two of them, however, ‘The Vampire: a tragedy,’ 1821, and ‘Montezuma: a tragedy,’ 1822, appear to have been written by Hugo John Belfour [q. v.]; while the third, a volume of poems, was the joint production of Belfour and Stephens.
[Tallis's Dramatic Mag. May 1851, p. 197; Gent. Mag. 1851 ii. 661, 1852 i. 2.]
