拍品專文
Alfred Gatley (1816-1863) moved to London from Cheshire in 1837 and worked with E. H. Baily. During this period he joined the Royal Academy Schools (1839) gaining a silver medal for his work and exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1841 to 1853. In 1844 he exhibited his bust of Hebe at Burlington House, and this work was selected as the first of the bronzes edited by the Art Union of London and cast by Hatfields that year.
Gatley left England for Rome in 1852 where he remained until his death. Gatley's entries for the 1862 International Exhibition were his bas-relief of Pharaoh and his Hosts, his figures of Echo and Night, and also four marbles of felines. Works by Gatley were in the Gawsworth Hall Collection, Cheshire, and his Greek Hero and the Bull and 1861 Echo are in Salford Art Gallery.
Gatley received a laudatory obituary in the Art Journal of 1863: "he had a mind of singular independence. The style he chose admitted of no facile compromise of the classic with the pictorial." It is likely that Gatley maintained a connection with Gibson in Rome and the work of other English sculptors working close to Gibson reflects a comparable style, in particular, the 1866 marble Oberon and Titania by Benjamin Spence (V&A Museum) displays the same formal classicism and attention to detail. On the other hand, the type of seated nymph more closely echoes the work of Canova and followers, such as Bartolini, and it is clear that Gatley was open to varied contemporary influences.
The subject is drawn from Ovid's Metamorphoses, III: 339-401. Echo was a wood nymph who lost the ability to speak her thoughts through a punishment from Juno. She fell in love with Narcissus and Gatley has chosen to show the nymph at the moment when she has caught sight of her lover and strains to hear his voice. The present finely carved marble pre-dates the Salford example by two years and the popularity of the figure is easily explained by the freshness and grace with which Gatley has imbued Ovid's nymph.
Gatley left England for Rome in 1852 where he remained until his death. Gatley's entries for the 1862 International Exhibition were his bas-relief of Pharaoh and his Hosts, his figures of Echo and Night, and also four marbles of felines. Works by Gatley were in the Gawsworth Hall Collection, Cheshire, and his Greek Hero and the Bull and 1861 Echo are in Salford Art Gallery.
Gatley received a laudatory obituary in the Art Journal of 1863: "he had a mind of singular independence. The style he chose admitted of no facile compromise of the classic with the pictorial." It is likely that Gatley maintained a connection with Gibson in Rome and the work of other English sculptors working close to Gibson reflects a comparable style, in particular, the 1866 marble Oberon and Titania by Benjamin Spence (V&A Museum) displays the same formal classicism and attention to detail. On the other hand, the type of seated nymph more closely echoes the work of Canova and followers, such as Bartolini, and it is clear that Gatley was open to varied contemporary influences.
The subject is drawn from Ovid's Metamorphoses, III: 339-401. Echo was a wood nymph who lost the ability to speak her thoughts through a punishment from Juno. She fell in love with Narcissus and Gatley has chosen to show the nymph at the moment when she has caught sight of her lover and strains to hear his voice. The present finely carved marble pre-dates the Salford example by two years and the popularity of the figure is easily explained by the freshness and grace with which Gatley has imbued Ovid's nymph.