拍品專文
During the 1870's Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-96) began sculpting figures to use as models for his paintings. His first sculpture per se was the Athlete wrestling a Python, executed in 1877, and it revolutionised British contemporary sculpture.
Leighton completed his life-size marble of The Sluggard in 1886. Bronze casts of the sketch for this figure were exhibited at the Paris International Exhibition of 1889 and at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition of 1890. The bronzes were cast, like the present example, by the founders J. W. Singer & Sons of Frome, and were often sold through the Bond Street Firm of Arthur Collie, and stamped accordingly.
The Sluggard captures Leighton's life-model Giuseppe Valona stretching, its freedom of movement and poetic appreciation of the nude reflected a new attitude to sculpture, and a break away from the Academic tradition.
Leighton completed his life-size marble of The Sluggard in 1886. Bronze casts of the sketch for this figure were exhibited at the Paris International Exhibition of 1889 and at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition of 1890. The bronzes were cast, like the present example, by the founders J. W. Singer & Sons of Frome, and were often sold through the Bond Street Firm of Arthur Collie, and stamped accordingly.
The Sluggard captures Leighton's life-model Giuseppe Valona stretching, its freedom of movement and poetic appreciation of the nude reflected a new attitude to sculpture, and a break away from the Academic tradition.