Newton (study, after Blake)

The source of Paolozzi's Newton Figure is the 1795 colour print of Sir Isaac Newton by William Blake (Tate Britain) which shows the seated Newton measuring the universe under the ocean with a pair of dividers. Paolozzi developed the idea in 1987 concurrently with a commission he received from the National Portrait Gallery to make a portrait sculpture of the British architect Richard Rogers. No bronze versions of Newton were cast in time for the exhibition Paolozzi Portraits, which opened at the National Portrait Gallery on 13 May 1988, so only versions made of plaster and wood were included. Plaster and wood models were also shown in the Royal Academy summer exhibition that year.

R.S.