animal anatomy; his range is considerable, and he is as easy with
a rhinoceros as with a cart-horse or a hunter.
Conrad Dressler is best known for his busts of distinguished men, but his statue of “A Girl Tying up her Sandal,” and his two large marble panels for St George’s Hall, Liverpool, assured him his position. There is a cleverness, a daring, in his marked style, vigour of treatment, and a tendency towards emphasis, especially in his decorative work. much of which is designed for execution in Della Robbia ware. Since his return to pure sculpture he has executed some important work, including a bronze “Bacchante.”
In the work of Harry Bates (1850–1899; A.R.A., 1892), especially in the reliefs, with its balance and dignity, its rhythmical line and fine expression, is to be seen a flexibility which few Englishmen had shown up to that time. Style and a genuinely modern treatment of classic form, which is not weakened by touches of naturalism, were also to be recognized. Nor—in his “Homer,” for example—does the background detract from the main subject: Homer and Humanity in front; and behind, a vision of the Parthenon and Pallas Athene, and the great Sun of Art rising with the dawn of Poetry. “Psyche” is more delicate in thought and treatment, but it has little of the originality or force of the “Homer,” or of the classic style seen in the head called “Rhodope.” The serene and reposeful statue of “Pandora,” about to open her ivory casket, successfully achieves the purity of style at which the sculptor aimed. “Hounds in Leash” (the bronze of which belongs to the earl of Wemyss) is a vigorous group which was undertaken by Bates in response to the criticism that he could design no figures but such as are at rest. The plastic group is in the Tate Gallery, where it figures along with the “Pandora.” In “Endymion” the sculptor seems to have united in some degree the sculptural ideas expressed in the “Homer” and the central relief of “Psyche”: there is in it a good deal of the grace of the one and of the decorative force of the other, together with a lofty sense of beauty. The portrait-busts of Harry Bates are good pieces of realism—strong, yet delicate in technique, and excellent in character.
Sir George Frampton (b. 1860; A.R.A., 1894; R.A., 1902; knighted, 1908), pupil of the Royal Academy, the Lambeth Schools, and Mercié in Paris, is a particularly versatile and original artist, thoroughly in the “new movement” which he has done so much to direct. Highly accomplished, he is at home in every branch of his art, and covers the whole field. He first exhibited “Socrates Teaching” (1884), and followed this with “The Songster” (1887), “An Act of Mercy” (1888), “In Silence Prayeth She,” “The Angel of Death” (1889), “Caprice” (1891), and in 1892 “The Children of the Wolf”—his last ideal statue of the kind. It was followed by “Mysteriarch,” heralding a class of work with which the artist has since identified himself; or being in open rebellion against “white sculpture,” he thenceforward devoted himself to colour. “Mother and Child” is an experiment in polychromatic figure-work. The half-length figure called “Lamia,” with ivory face, head, and neck, and in a quaint head-and-neck dress of bronze jewelled, is a further departure from the true reserve of sculpture, but beautiful and delightful in feeling. The statue of “Dame Alice Owen,” in bronze and marble, and “King Edward VI.” are original, notwithstanding the pseudo-medieval taste of their conception. Frampton is happiest in distinctly decorative sculpture. His prolific and inventive fancy has expressed itself in such works as the bronze “The Steamship” and “The Sailing Ship” for Lloyd’s Registry in London, and in the memorial “Monument to Charles Mitchell,” at Newcastle-on-Tyne. Herein a new note is sounded, and we have some of the most striking features of Frampton’s design. That is to say, he seeks to escape from the purely architectural forms, pediments and mouldings, introducing his own inventions of curved lines, and frequently substituting tree-forms for columns or pilasters, with roots for bases, trunks for pillars, and branches and foliage for capitals. Besides these should be mentioned “The Vision,” the seven heroines from the Morte d’Arthur, “My Thoughts are my Children,” “Music” and “Dancing,” and memorials and busts of “Charles Keene,” “R. Stuart Poole,” “Leigh Hunt,” “Passmore Edwards,” “Dr Garnett,” a colossal statue of “Queen Victoria” erected in Calcutta, and another, an extremely successful work, for Leeds. His group of “Maternity” (1905) and the full-length seated statue of the marquess of Salisbury (1907) have added to his reputation. There are always charm of arrangement, delicacy of workmanship, and daintiness of feeling, as well as considerable power of design, simplicity, and breadth in his work. Sir George Frampton has also produced a number of fine medals.
W. S. Frith, one of the most successful teachers of sculptors in England, is chiefly remarkable for the decorative quality of his work. As in the monument to “Wheatstone, Inventor of the Telegraph,” or again, the standard lamps at the Astor Estate Office on the Thames Embankment, the sculptor shows charm of thought and spirit of design, vigour, and richness of effect. His ideal statuary and portraiture are not his chief work, however; his decorative sculpture for ecclesiastical and secular buildings is vast in extent and has had good influence on the younger school. One of his chief works is the “Bishop Ellicott’s Memorial,” a tomb with recumbent figure, a design of considerable imagination.
Henry A. Pegram (b. 1862; A.R.A., 1904), a pupil of Hamo Thornycroft and of the Royal Academy, attracted early attention with “Death Liberating a Prisoner,” and by the two high reliefs “Ignis Fatuus” (acquired for the Chantrey Collection) and “The Doom of Medusa.” These were followed by “Eve,” “Sibylla Fatidica,” “The Last Song,” “The Bather,” “Labour,” and “Fortune,” by decorative work for the exterior of the Imperial Institute, and later by the great candelabra which flank the interior western end of St Paul’s cathedral. “Into the Silent Land” (1905) is a group typical of the funerary sculpture on which his chisel was engaged in later years. His portraiture is also noteworthy. and his work generally is usually sculpturesque, with movement and life.
A. G. Walker has produced notable work in the class of pure sculpture, including the relief representing “The Last Plague: The Death of the Firstborn,” “Adam and Eve: And They were Afraid” and “The Thorn” (exhibited in bronze in 1910), graceful and quaintly charming, with elegance in the pose and in the action. His chief decorative work includes the sculptural figures in Stamford Hill Church.
The name of Captain Adrian Jones was for many years chiefly associated with the spirited work called “Duncan’s Horses,” a group displaying great knowledge of equine anatomy, form and action; since then his equestrian statue of “The Duke of Cambridge,” erected in Whitehall, London, outside the War Office, has been recognized as a vigorous performance. His most important work is the monumental quadriga designed to crown Burton’s great Arch at Hyde Park Corner, London.
W. Reynolds-Stephens (b. 1862), more devoted to goldsmith’s figure-work than to larger and more searching sculpture, must be considered less as a statuary than as “a poet who sings in metal.” A relief, after Sir L. Alma-Tadema’s “Women of Amphissa” (1889), was followed by. a “Wall Fountain,” “Truth and Justice,” and the “Sleeping Beauty,” a bas-relief, full of thought, invention, and dainty conceits. In the highly decorated “Launcelot and the Nestling,” “Guinevere and the Nestling,” and similar works, the artist makes use of various coloured metals, ivory, ems and the like, with pretty symbolism. Apart from his choice of material, there is a delicate languor about the lines', of his figures and reliefs, which display a charming feelings and refined taste. By two striking works he has re-entered the field of pure sculpture—the dramatic and somewhat tool anecdotal “A Royal Game” and “The Scout in War,” exhibited in 1908, an equestrian group of great refinement and excellence.
Alfred Drury (b. 1857; A.R.A., 1900) was a pupil of Dalou, whose assistant for a time he became. The first result was the curious echo of the master’s style, “The Triumph of Silenus” (1885). “The Genius of Sculpture” and “The First Reflection” (bought by the queen of Saxony) and “The Evening Prayer” (1890, Manchester Corporation Gallery) were followed by the statue of “Circe” (1893), which, through its grace, elegance of line, and symbolical realization of the subject, achieved a great popular success and was acquired by Leeds. The bronze head of “St Agnes” (1894) is one of the first examples of Mr Drury’s later style, belonging to the higher order of conception which, generally speaking, he has since maintained. This may be seen also in “Griselda” (bought for the Chantrey Collection), “The Age of Innocence,” and other busts symbolical of childhood, and in the series of “The Months,” at Barrow Court. For the decoration of the City Square at Leeds Drury executed the statue of Dr Priestly, consisting of the colossal figure entitled “Even.” His colossal groups for the decoration of the War Office, the monumental panels in high relief for the piers of Lambeth Bridge; and the decorative sculpture for the façade of the new Victoria and Albert Museum, all in London, are works of considerable importance. Among the latter are the figures of “Inspiration” and “Knowledge,” executed in 1907. Drury’s quiet, suave, and contemplative art lends itself well as decorative sculpture to architectural embellishment. His portraiture is also good, reticent, and full of character, and as a manipulator of clay he represents the highest contemporary standard of English sculptors.
Frederick W. Pomeroy (A.R.A., 1906), pupil of the Lambeth and Royal Academy Schools, and of M ercié, is of equal taste and ability. After 1888, when he exhibited the bronze statuette “Giotto,” he produced many ideal works—“Love, the Conqueror” (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), “Pleasures are like Poppies Spread,” “Boy Pipin,” “Dionysos,” and “The Nymph of Loch Awe” (both in the Tate Gallery), “A Nymph Finding the Head of Orpheus,” “Undine,” “Pensée,” and the clever study of the nude called “The Potter.” “Perseus is an inspiration from Benvenuto Cellini, but “The Spearman” is an original and powerful work. “Feroniae” (1909) is a nude statue, in bronze, remarkable for grace and sculptural animation. In ideal portraiture he has produced the statues. of “Admiral Blake,” “Dean Hook” (a colossal work for Leeds); “Oliver Cromwell” (also colossal, for St Ives, Huntingdonshire), “Robert Burns” for Paisley, as well as “R. P. Bonington” (1910), “Monsignor Nugent of Liverpool” (1905), an impressive group, and similar work, together with the life-size panel of “Archbishop Temple,” in bronze, for St Paul’s cathedral. In true portraiture, Pomeroy executed the Liberal Memorial Statue of Mr Gladstone, in the lobby of the Houses of Parliament, and the recumbent effigy of the Duke of Westminster, for Chester cathedral. His work is strong and sculpturesque, and his statues “stand” well. He sees nature in a big broad way, and his decoration is effective and well designed.
Albert Toft became known by his statue of “Lilith” (1889), and
