Mary Lloyd (sculptor)

Mary Charlotte Lloyd (23 January 1819 – 1896) was a Welsh sculptor who studied with John Gibson in Rome and lived for decades with feminist Frances Power Cobbe.

Mary Lloyd was born in Denbighshire, Wales, the eighth of seventeen children, and the first of six girls, to Edward Lloyd of Rhagatt and his wife Frances Maddocks. Her father was a substantial squire over many counties, owning 4,300 acres of land, and Mary inherited money from a maiden aunt, Margaret, as well as gifts from Eleanor Charlotte Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the Ladies of Llangollen. Both of her parents died in 1858.

Mary studied and worked with French artist Rosa Bonheur. In 1853 she was working in the studio of Welsh sculptor John Gibson in Rome, along with American sculptor Harriet Hosmer.

Mary met Frances Power Cobbe in the winter of 1861-2, in Rome. Mary and Frances networked with like minded women in Italy in the period, both being noncomformist, with a feminist outlook. In 1863, they settled together in London.

In 1858 Lloyd inherited a share in the Welsh landed estate of Hengwrt. This allowed Lloyd to refer to herself as a landed proprietor when signing petitions supporting women's suffrage, and also gave her some local political rights, such as the ability to appoint a vicar. She and Frances Power Cobbe retired to Hengwrt from London in April 1884.

Mary died in 1896 from heart disease and was buried together with Frances Power Cobbe in Saint Illtud Church Cemetery, Llanelltyd.