A New Sculpture Bronze Relief Roundel, Circa 1900

In the Manner of Sir Alfred Gilbert and William Reid Dick. 

The present work depicts two angels, one holding an oil lamp above a third central figure with hands clasped and upwards gaze. The bronze has a rich dark brown olive coloured patina.  

New sculpture is a name applied to the sculptures produced by a group of artists working in the second half of the nineteenth century. 

The term was coined by critic Edmund Gosse in an 1876 article in Art Journal titled The New Sculpture in which he identified this new trend in sculpture. Its distinguishing qualities were a new dynamism and energy as well as physical realism, mythological or exotic subject matter and use of symbolism, as opposed to prevailing style of frozen neoclassicism. It can be considered part of symbolism.

Provenance: Sir Alfred Herbert, thence by descent. 

Sir Alfred Edward Herbert KBE (5 September 1866 – 26 May 1957) was an English Industrialist and museum benefactor. He moved to Coventry in 1887 to manage a small engineering business which grew to become Alfred Herbert Ltd one of the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of machine tools. 

As well as being an industrialist, Herbert was a philanthropist within Coventry, building almshouses, supporting wounded servicemen through donations, establishing a camp for the city's poor children, and funding the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral.

Herbert's legacy also lives on in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, of which he was a major benefactor. In 1938 he donated £100,000 to Coventry City Council to erect a Gallery and Museum on a town centre site owned by the council. The city's destruction during the Second World War meant that construction was suspended. New plans were drawn up in 1952, and in May 1954 the foundation stone was laid by Herbert, who also donated a further £100,000 to the project.

Dimensions

This object is eligible for a Certificate of BADA Provenance

Condition report