A Young Woman (Angela Baroni) Feeding a Wolf
Prince Paolo (Paul) Troubetzkoy (1866-1938)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1906
Materials
Bronze
Measurements
430 x 240 x 435 mm
Place of origin
Paris
Order this imageCollection
Shaw's Corner, Hertfordshire
NT 1274947
Summary
Bronze sculpture “A Young Woman (Angela Baroni) Feeding a Wolf”, by Prince Paolo (Paul) Troubetzkoy (1866-1938), signed and dated 1906. The standing figure of Angela Baroni, Troubetzkoy’s sister-in-law, extends her right hand to a wolf. Signed and dated on base: “Paul Troubetskoy, 1906 / Paris”.
Full description
Angela Baroni was married to Troubetzkoy’s brother. She is shown in the sculpture with a wolf, “one of Troubetzkoy’s wild Siberian specimens, which he pretended to be “tame” and fed as vegetarians.” (John Grioni, “A Lifetime Friendship (George Bernard Shaw and Paul Troubetzkoy)” The Independent Shavian, vol.44, nos.1-2, 2006, p.12). Shaw and Troubetzkoy were friends for over thirty years, a reflection of their shared love of animals and vegetarianism. In 1931 Shaw wrote the preface to Troubetzkoy’s London exhibition at Colnaghi’s gallery, where 3 bronze portraits of Shaw were on show. Shaw described Troubetzkoy as a “humanitarian who can do anything with an animal except eat it”, noting that “it is as a faithful vegetarian that I am immortalized in bronze in this exhibition.” (Shaw, ‘A Word’, Sculpture by Prince Paul Troubetzkoy, London, P.&D. Colnaghi, December 1931). Shaw continued his praise: “When he models an animal, whether it is the tiniest domestic pet, or an overdriven carter’s horse…the result is so perfect in its truth to nature and its power of conveying some lesson or appeal, that you are rushed to the conclusion that its sculptor, like Barye [famous sculptor of animals], was born to model animals and nothing else.” For Shaw Troubetzkoy remained “one of the few geniuses of whom it is not only safe but necessary to speak in superlatives. He is the most astonishing sculptor of modern times.” There are 3 animal sculptures by Troubetzkoy in the collection.(Alice McEwan, 2020)
Provenance
The Shaw Collection. The house and contents were bequeathed to the National Trust by George Bernard Shaw in 1950, together with Shaw's photographic archive.
Credit line
National Trust Collections (Shaw’s Corner, The George Bernard Shaw Collection)
Marks and inscriptions
On base: Paul Troubetskoy, 1906 / Paris
Makers and roles
Prince Paolo (Paul) Troubetzkoy (1866-1938) , sculptor