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Lot Essay
As becoming of John Bell (1811-1895), a quintessential Victorian sculptor, The American Slave embodies multiple themes paramount in Victorian sculpture. The subject of a semi-naked and manacled female slave would have been considered radical in both her depiction as semi-nude, then only recently considered artistically decent, and in giving form to the polemics of slavery, which was at the forefront of public consciousness with the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852. Its inspiration came partly from America, following the phenomenal success of The Greek Slave by Hiram Powers shown at the Great Exhibition in 1851.
First exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853 as a A Daughter of Eve, Bell appears to have settled on the title The American Slave after re-exhibiting it at the 1862 London International Exhibition. Bell's fascination during the 1850s with the subject of captive women is also evident in his figures of Andromeda, The Abyssinian Slave and The Octoroon.
The affinity with the subject brought by The American Slave perhaps proved significant in Bell's being selected to execute the group of the Americas for the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens. Bell chose bison supporting a Native American led by figures symbolising the United States and Canada. John Bell's best known work in London is the Crimea monument of the Brigade of the Guards at the Junction of Pall Mall and Waterloo Place.
A bronze example of The American Slave was commissioned by the 4th Marquess of Hertford, whose collections of art form the core of the Wallace Collection in London, and following his death in 1870 it was probably bought by Lord Armstrong for Cragside, Northumberland, where it remains. Reductions were produced in Parian by Minton and electrotype by Elkington. Another described as bronze, but more probably copper electrotype, like the present lot, sold Sotheby's, London, 5 October 2005, lot 197 (£28,100).
First exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853 as a A Daughter of Eve, Bell appears to have settled on the title The American Slave after re-exhibiting it at the 1862 London International Exhibition. Bell's fascination during the 1850s with the subject of captive women is also evident in his figures of Andromeda, The Abyssinian Slave and The Octoroon.
The affinity with the subject brought by The American Slave perhaps proved significant in Bell's being selected to execute the group of the Americas for the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens. Bell chose bison supporting a Native American led by figures symbolising the United States and Canada. John Bell's best known work in London is the Crimea monument of the Brigade of the Guards at the Junction of Pall Mall and Waterloo Place.
A bronze example of The American Slave was commissioned by the 4th Marquess of Hertford, whose collections of art form the core of the Wallace Collection in London, and following his death in 1870 it was probably bought by Lord Armstrong for Cragside, Northumberland, where it remains. Reductions were produced in Parian by Minton and electrotype by Elkington. Another described as bronze, but more probably copper electrotype, like the present lot, sold Sotheby's, London, 5 October 2005, lot 197 (£28,100).