The Exhibition

6 June

SCULPTURE

Alfred Gilbert (1854-1934)

Maquette for the Sam Wilson chimney piece, c.1908-14

plaster and wax

h 44.5 cm Presented by Mr Sigismund Goetze and the National Art Collections Fund, 1937

 This maquette relates to a chimneypiece made by Alfred Gilbert for a wealthy Leeds clothing manufacturer, Sam Wilson, who bequeathed it to Leeds in 1925 along with his collection of fine and decorative art. The chimneypiece forms part of a permanent display of Sam Wilson's collection in one of the first-floor galleries of Leeds City Art Gallery. Based on Rafael Monti's A Sleep of Sorow and a Dream of Joy (now in the Victoria and Albert Museum), the dark surface of the bronze on the chimneypiece disguises a subterranean world revealing images of mortality, which the maquette reveals more by the vulnerability of the plaster from which it was formed.
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