“The Sluggard” by Frederic Lord Leighton

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The Sluggard

Frederic Lord Leighton, P. R. A. (1830-1896)

1890

Bronze, rich mid and dark brown patination

Height: 20 3/4 inches (52.5 cm.)

Signed "Fred Leighton," and inscribed "Founded by J. W. Singer & Sons, Frome Somerset Published by Arthur Leslie Collie 39B Old Bond Street, London, May 1st 1890."

The Royal Academy has the life-size plaster version of The Sluggard, and Tate Britain has the 1885 life-size bronze. Reduced-size versions are in the collections of Ashmolean Museum and the Minneapolis Institute of Fine Arts.

See commentary below

Detail of this cast

Multiple photographs of another cast

Robert Bowman and the Fine Art Society, London, have most generously given their permission to use information, images, and text from Sir Alfred Gilbert and the New Sculpture in the Victorian Web. Copyright on text and images from their catalogues remains, of course, with them. [GPL]

Commentary from Robert Bowman’s Sir Alfred Gilbert and the New Sculpture

Lord Leighton's life-size plaster . . . was first exhibited at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1886. A bronze cast acquired by Henry Tate in 1896 and now belongs to the Tate Gallery in London although it is currently on loan to the Royal Academy. The inspiration for the piece came from his life drawing of model Giuseppe Valona stretching during a break between poses, the work was originally called Athlete Awakening from Sleep, and was first executed in 1882.

This bronze is a sketch for the finished work and one of an edition cast by Singer and Sons of Frome. It is the version that was produced for the collectors' market, a reduced version of the finished work never being cast. Singer and Sons set up their new foundry capable of casting using the lost wax and sand casting processes in 1888. Rights to market the model from 1890 were bought by Arthur Leslie Collie who sold these and other New School sculpture from his joint premises with Agnews in Old Bond Street. A bronze cast, which bore his name and that of the founder Singer and Sons was exhibited at the Arts and Crafts exhibition of 1890. by 1901 Collie was no longer associated with Agnews and by 1906 he was no longer listed in the art directory. Casts made under Collie's name can then be accurately dated to this period. [76]

Bibliography

Beattie, Susan. The New Sculpture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983. Pp. 149, 190-91.

Bowman, Robert. Sir Alfred Gilbert and the New Sculpture. London: The Fine Art Society, 2008. Pp. 76-77.

British Sculpture 1850-1914. A loan exhibition of sculpture and medals sponsored by The Victorian Society. London: Fine Art Society, 1968. no. 101.

Ormond, Léonie and Richard. Lord Leighton. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1975.

Created 7 June 2008

Last Modified 14 February 2020