Acknowledgments
Peyton Skipwith
Acknowledgements for the Fine Art Society catalogue, Peter Pan and Eros: Public and Private Sculpture in Britain, 1880-1940 (2002), which the Fine Art Society has kindly shared with readers of the Victorian Web. Copyright of images and text of course remains with FAS.
In March 1902 The Fine Art Society held the first ever exhibition of Statuettes by living sculptors, and M H Spielmann proudly proclaimed in his introduction to the catalogue that: The movement here inaugurated of setting the statuette before the collector who has chiefly been offered hitherto only the unmanageable statue or group - corresponds in a fashion with the suppression of the tyrannous three-volume novel and the substitution of the smaller book. It is mainly a matter of size; the artistic merit is much the sameš. Throughout the century since those words were written, The Fine Art Society has proudly continued that policy, honouring the past whilst continuing to champion the work of living sculptors.
The Directors of The Fine Art Society would like to thank the Trustees of the Gilbert Bayes Charitable Trust, Robert Bowman, John Larson, John Lewis, Charles Pugh, Benedict Read, Marjorie Trusted, and many others, who share our passion for the great flowering of the sculptural tradition in Britain at the end of the nineteenth century. At the same time we would like to honour the memory of past colleagues and champions of the cause, most particularly Charles and Lavinia Handley-Read, Susan Beattie, and Albert Gallichan, whose eloquence and advocacy inspired a new generation with the Arts and Crafts virtue and intrinsic beauty of the New Sculptureš.
Last modified 1 May 2018