Marble
The traditional favourite of stone carvers, easy to carve and one of the most luxurious stones. Marble comes in an infinite variety of colours, depending on where it is quarried, and polishes to a fine finish. From the Renaissance to the nineteenth century white Italian marble was favoured for its resemblance to surviving classical pieces. Alabaster is one of the softest types of marble. When newly quarried it is easily worked on but it gradually hardens with exposure to air.
Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover
by 'F.M.R.'
1648
NPG 4520
Alexander Pope
by John Michael Rysbrack
1730
NPG 5854
Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield
by Louis François Roubiliac
1745
NPG 5829
Probably Louis François Roubiliac
attributed to Joseph Wilton
circa 1761
NPG 2145
Elizabeth (née Farren), Countess of Derby
by Anne Seymour Damer (née Conway)
circa 1788
NPG 4469
Mary Anne Clarke (née Thompson)
by Lawrence Gahagan
1811
NPG 4436
Richard Payne Knight
by John Bacon the Younger
1814
NPG 4887
Queen Victoria
replica by Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey
1841, based on a work of 1839
NPG 1716
Charles Cowden Clarke
attributed to Thomas Heathfield Carrick
circa 1841-1854
NPG 4506
Sarah Siddons (née Kemble)
by Thomas Campbell
1843
NPG 642
John Gibson
by Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
NPG 5342
T.E. Lawrence
by Sir Charles Thomas Wheeler
1929
NPG 5016