Peter Pan

The present charming statuette of Peter Pan, dated 1915, is from a series of reductions in bronze, cast between 1913 and 1925, of the life-size bronze exhibited by Frampton at the Royal Academy, in 1911 and erected by an anonymous donor in Kensington Gardens the following year. In fact the anonymous donor was J.M. Barrie, the author of the play first performed in 1904. He had the bronze erected in secret on 29th and 30th 1912, so that it would seem to have magically appeared. The statue stands at the spot where, as recounted in Barrie's Little White Bird, Peter Pan lands for his nightly visits to the Gardens and where he pipes to the spirits of the children that have played there. The figure is mounted on a rock inhabited by a host of fairies, rabbits and other woodland creatures. In writing his tales of Peter Pan J.M. Barrie was inspired by a family of boys - the Llewelyns. George Llewelyn was the inspiration for the character of Peter Pan, and Frampton used his brother Michael as the inspiration for his sculpture. The success of the statue was instant, amongst children and adults alike, and its popular appeal led Frampton to produce a bronze reduction of the main figure as an independent statue.