Darnley Fine Art has dated this Bronze Male Nude Sculpture to the Victorian era.
Dimensions: 20 1/2 inches in height
Provenance:
By repute, The John Schaeffer Collection, Sydney, Australia
Nevill Keating Tollemache Ltd, London
The Collection of Roger S. Wieck and Jean-Francois Vilain: Sold to Benefit The Morgan Library & Museum
The bronze was originally executed in 1882 under the title ‘Athlete Awakening from Sleeping’, with the stretching pose being based off of model Gaetano Valona’s stretched posture after a day of sitting for Leighton. The languid contrapposto stance contrasts with the tense muscles of the model, hinting simultaneously at grace and restrained power in a representation of the ideal athletic male nude. The work was noted for taking its inspiration from sculpture of antiquity and the Renaissance, but the subject matter and overall style was pioneering. As a result, Leighton’s new sculpture was perceived as harkening in a new era of British sculpture, known aptly as ‘New Sculpture’.In 1889, Leighton exhibited The Sluggard at the Exposition Universelle in Paris and earned a medal of honour, beginning an era of critical acclaim and commercial success for the bronze. In 1890, Arthur Leslie Collie bought the rights to market the model and created smaller-scale bronze editions in collaboration with the Singer & Sons foundry. Although Collie left the collaboration in 1906, Singer & Sons continued to produce such editions until at least 1914. Editions without the foundry mark do exist, but debate remains as to whether they were produced before or after the involvement of Singer & Sons, with Nicholas Penny noting that many other editions were produced in the 1890s, 1920s and 1930s.
These small-scale casts ensured that The Sluggard became one of the most popular British sculptures of the 19th century, with many private collections and notable museums (such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Ashmolean) all holding a cast within their collection. A full-size bronze cast is in the Tate Gallery collection, whilst a full-size plaster version is held by the Royal Academy. As if to solidify the importance of The Sluggard to Leighton’s legacy, a cast of it is also featured on Leighton’s tomb in St Paul’s, held by the allegorical figure of Sculpture who flanks an effigy of Leighton.
Darnley Fine Art has dated this Bronze Male Nude Sculpture to the Victorian era.
You can view the stock and full dealer information on the Darnley Fine Art Profile Page
Frederic Leighton the Sluggard Bronze Sculpture
