1870-1893 - Waterford Road (Fulham)

Sculptor Luigi [Louis] Fabbrucci was born in 1829 in Florence. He studied at the local Academy under Aristodemo Costoli. In 1853 he created his first major work, a Resurrection of Christ, which was erected on the Camposanto della Misericordia in Florence. In the following years he designed several reliefs for the façade of Sante Croce. After his son Aristide Luigi was born about 1859 in Florence, he moved the family to Paris where he continued his career. He is known for his Deux enfants, la Peinture et la Sculpture se disputant (1862) in the Musée d’Orsay. Receiving a variety of commissions, he seemed settled in Paris. Under pressure of the Franco-Prussian War, he moved to London in 1870 and occupied Florence Villa at no. 13 Waterford Road, Fulham. In 1884 Fabbrucci became the landlord of six newly built artist studios at no. 454a Fulham Road, collectively known as Fulham Studios. His son, also a sculptor, occupied one of the studios until 1903. In 1885 James McNeill Whistler, Walter Sickert, and Walter Greaves had studios here (in 1913 Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and his wife Sophie rented a workplace there). In London, Luigi created sculptures for the tympanum of the gallery building of the Old Water Colour Society and sculpted a range of portrait busts. He died in 1893 in London.