A British sculptor, Drury has been very active in the early 20th century and is mainly known for his public sculptures in London, such as the figures in stone on the facade of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the four colossal bronze figures for Vauxhall Bridge.
Born in Islington, London, the artist attended Oxford School of Art and then the National Art Training School, South Kensington (1877-1881). In the 1880s, Drury went to France, where he worked as an assistant to Jules Dalou, a French sculptor representative of the naturalist trend in French sculpture. He assisted him on the monumental Triumph of the Republic in the Place de la Nation in Paris.
During his career, the artist created a large number of busts and statuettes for which he has been associated with the New Sculpture movement. In the late 19th century, British sculpture was characterised by a new dynamism, physical realism, and the representation of ideal figures from poetry or mythology. The artist notably produced a series of female studies of 'ideal busts' such as 'Griselda', a figure from European folklore, the heroine of The Decameron (1358) by the Italian author Boccaccio. This successful figure was reproduced in several different sizes by the artist through his career.
Drury's work is held in numerous collections and museums, such as The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, and the Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston.