Sculptor and painter, he was the youngest son of the architect James Wyatt. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1800 and showed paintings in the annual Royal Academy exhibitions, 1803–14, his only sculptural exhibit being a Bust of King George III in 1811. His father’s influence assisted him at the outset, obtaining for him employment at Windsor Castle and also, perhaps, helping him to win the competition for the Liverpool Nelson Monument, his first important commission. Nevertheless, only the design is his, his lack of the requisite practical skills requiring the memorial committee to engage an experienced sculptor, (Sir) Richard Westmacott, to execute the work. His Cenotaph to Princess Charlotte in St George’s Chapel, Windsor (1824) was much admired, and he created a related design to commemorate the Duchess of Rutland (1828) for the mausoleum at Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire. His design for an elaborately allegorical national memorial to George III was well received, but lack of funds led to its abandonment and Wyatt had to settle instead for an equestrian statue (1836, Cockspur Street, London). This was widely mocked because of its faithful portrayal of the king’s outmoded wig and pigtail. Around 1832/34, Wyatt created in different stones and bronze a polychrome statue of Lord Dudley’s favourite Newfoundland dog, Bashaw, represented treading down a serpent (Victoria and Albert Museum, London). His most unsuccessful work is generally considered to be his colossal Equestrian Statue of the Duke of Wellington (1838–46), executed for Decimus Burton’s arch at Hyde Park Corner. This was much reviled and eventually removed to Aldershot in 1883. F.M. O’Donoghue, in his Dictionary of National Biography entry for Wyatt (1900), comments, ‘Thanks to royal and other influential patronage, Wyatt enjoyed a reputation and practice to which his mediocre abilities hardly entitled him, and he amassed considerable wealth.’
Bibliography: Art Journal, 1 March 1862, p. 86 (obituary); D. Bilbey and M. Trusted, British Sculpture 1470 to 2000. A Concise Catalogue of the Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2002, pp. 437–38; T. Cavanagh, Public Sculpture of Liverpool, Liverpool, 1997, pp. xi, 51–55, 104, 105, 197; Illustrated London News, 3 October 1846, pp. 213–14, 216, 217, 218, 224 (‘The Great Wellington Statue’); F.M. O’Donoghue, ‘Wyatt, Matthew Cotes (1777–1862)’, Dictionary of National Biography, 1900; F.M. O’Donoghue (rev. J.M. Robinson), ‘Wyatt, Matthew Cotes (1777–1862)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online edn), 2004; I. Roscoe et al, A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660–1851, New Haven and London, 2009, pp. 1421–24; Royal Academy of Arts website: ‘Matthew Cotes Wyatt (1777–1862)’; P. Ward-Jackson, Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster. Volume 1, Liverpool, 2011, pp. xxiii, xxv–xxix, xxx, xxxvii, 32–35, 386, 387, 400.
Philip Ward-Jackson, 2011; revised, Terry Cavanagh, January 2025