.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This is a study for the central figure in the certificate awarded in 1884 by the Department of Science and Art at South Kensington for 'a first class success in the elementary stage of a science subject'. The finished design and several studies are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a study similar to ours but in the reverse direction is illustrated in Malcolm Bell, The Drawings of Sir E. J. Poynter, London, 1906, pl. XVII.
The design was much admired in its day. It was the second that Poynter had produced for the Department of Science and Art, the first, dating from 1868, being for the School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. Both designs betray a debt to the certificate that Alfred Stevens had produced for the International Exhibition of 1862.
The design was much admired in its day. It was the second that Poynter had produced for the Department of Science and Art, the first, dating from 1868, being for the School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. Both designs betray a debt to the certificate that Alfred Stevens had produced for the International Exhibition of 1862.