Lot Essay
The inspiration for the present charming marble group comes from the Irish musician and writer Thomas Moore's (d.1852) popular Oriental romance Lalla Rookh (1817), where in some early editions of the poem appears the tale of The Peri's Daughter. In Persian mythology a 'peri' was a fairy or good genius. The meaning has since evolved and by the nineteenth century would also have denoted a beautiful or graceful being. In this composition Fuller (d.1875) has portrayed both nuances of the word in his elegant depiction of the young fairy, reclining on the back of a swan, and the repose of the infant child, sleeping on the natural pillow of her mother's breast.
After a brief spell in the army, Charles Francis Fuller left his native England for Florence, where he studied under the celebrated American sculptor, Hiram Powers. In 1870, in an article on British and American sculptors residing in Florence, an Art Journal correspondent wrote of the present work: "If popularity is to be taken as a sure test of merit, then Mr Fuller's success has been complete; for it is hardly possible for any one work to have met with more approbation, in its sphere, than his last has done. his 'Peri' has excited quite a furore in Florence..... It will speedily be commenced in marble, for an English nobleman noted for his collection of works of Art" (Art Journal, Vol. 1870, p. 296). There are no records available to name this nobleman, however, the finished marble was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1871. From 1873, the model was reproduced in Parian porcelain by the Minton factory.
After a brief spell in the army, Charles Francis Fuller left his native England for Florence, where he studied under the celebrated American sculptor, Hiram Powers. In 1870, in an article on British and American sculptors residing in Florence, an Art Journal correspondent wrote of the present work: "If popularity is to be taken as a sure test of merit, then Mr Fuller's success has been complete; for it is hardly possible for any one work to have met with more approbation, in its sphere, than his last has done. his 'Peri' has excited quite a furore in Florence..... It will speedily be commenced in marble, for an English nobleman noted for his collection of works of Art" (Art Journal, Vol. 1870, p. 296). There are no records available to name this nobleman, however, the finished marble was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1871. From 1873, the model was reproduced in Parian porcelain by the Minton factory.