Tessa Pullan
Illustration — Bronze statue of a horse (1977) on a Lloyds Bank building in Cambridge; the bank's emblem is a black horse Tessa Pullan (born 1953) is an English sculptor.
Tessa Pullan

John M · From geograph.org.uk · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Born
- 1953
- Occupation
- sculptor
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Illustration — Bronze statue of a horse (1977) on a Lloyds Bank building in Cambridge; the bank's emblem is a black horse Tessa Pullan (born 1953) is an English sculptor.
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wikidata · Q2962297 · wikipedia · Tessa Pullan
In this article
Biography
Biography
• Illustration — Horse and Rider on the Black Country Route • Illustration — Civil War Horse at the National Sporting Library & Museum Pullan was from 1971 to 1974 in France apprenticed to the sculptor John Skeaping and then gained a diploma from 1974 to 1977 at the City and Guilds of London Art School. She studied from 1977 to 1980 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Her first exhibition took place in 1976 at London's Guildhall Art Gallery. In 1980 she started her first studio. The philanthropist and horse breeder Paul Mellon commissioned the Civil War Horse for the National Sporting Library & Museum in Middleburg, Virginia, honouring the horses and mules who died during the American Civil War. Her bust of Mellon is in the National Portrait Gallery. She is now one of Britain's leading animal sculptors, working in a variety of media, but mainly bronze and wood. She also produces portraits. The artist has a studio in Barrowden, Rutland, since 1990 and studios in Sandwich, Aberystwyth and Berkhamsted. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors (FRSS) and a member of the Society of Equestrian Artists.
Some works
Some works
• Untitled (1977) Gonville Place in Cambridge • 1993 Kentucky Derby winner Sea Hero (1993), Rokeby Stables, Upperville in Fauquier County, Virginia • Civil War Horse (1997): 1, National Sporting Library in Middleburg, Virginia; 2, U.S. Cavalry Museum at Fort Riley, Kansas; and 3, Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, Virginia • Horse and Rider, The Lunt, Bilston

Horseman on the Black Country Route. Looking towards Walsall on the Black Country Route. This is one of a number of statues on the Lunt.
John M · From geograph.org.uk

Untitled sculpture
Keith Edkins · From geograph.org.uk
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1953
Tessa Pullan born.
Equine sculptures
The racehorse, Sea Hero, won the Kentucky Derby in 1993 and Pullan was tasked with creating a sculpture of him at the National Sporting Library & Museum. Created in bronze, the horse is over 7 ft and 2 tons in weight. The 1996 "Horse and Rider" galvanised steel statue on the Black Country Route, Wolverhampton was commissioned by Wolverhampton City Council. Pullan carved the sculpture using wood and then the model was scaled up and produced in steel by Arden Fabrications of Knowle. Pullan was given instructions by Paul Mellon to make a bronze, three-quarter size statue of a Civil War Horse. As part of her research, she contacted the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for images of abused horses to influence the oppressive appearance of the statue. On 17 September 1997, the statue was unveiled by the Virginia Historical Society.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Watson, Harry L. Southern cultures : the fifteenth anniversary reader. University of North Carolina Press. 2008. 9780807886465.
- 2.National Sporting Library & Museum To Host Sea Hero Symposium. The Chronicle of the Horse. 20 May 2015.
- 3.Baskett, John. The horse in art. Yale University Press. 2006. 9780300117400.
- 4.THE ORIGIN OF THE WAR HORSE by Lisa Campbell
- 5.Other Exhibitions and Displays Virginia Museum of History & Culture. www.virginiahistory.org.
- 6.Tessa Pullan (1953-), Artist. National Portrait Gallery.
- 7.Royal Society of Sculptors. Tessa Pullan.
- 8.Tessa Pullan. Society of Equestrian Artists.
- 9.Sea Hero, 1995. National Sporting Library & Museum.
- 10.Tessa Pullan. Society of Equestrian Artists.
- 11.Noszlopy, George Thomas. Public sculpture of Staffordshire and the Black Country. Liverpool University Press. 23. 2005. 9780853239895.
- 12.Gaaserud, Michaela Riva. Moon Virginia: Including Washington DC. Hachette. 3 June 2014. 9781612388045.
- 13.The War Horse. Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
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Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 17 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Sculpture
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