AN ENGLISH WHITE MARBLE FIGURE EMBLEMATIC OF NIGHT

John Thomas (d. 1862), an extremely prolific and eclectic sculptor, began his working life under the auspices of Sir Charles Barry. Exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1842-1861, his oeuvre includes many public monuments and commissions for private houses. Sir Samuel Morton Peto, the great Victorian industrialist and patron of the arts, employed Thomas extensively as architect and sculptor at his country house, Somerleyton Hall, Suffolk. In 1851, as part of the scheme, Thomas executed two reclining figures - one of 'Night', the other of 'Day' - for the garden terrace. The present model is a smaller version of the near-lifesize figure of 'Night' and was most probably the marble statuette entitled 'Night' which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853, no. 1308.