Dancing girl
'Rilette', Charles Sykes (1875-1950/2)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1922
Materials
Bronze on verde antico
Measurements
448 mm (Height)
Place of origin
United Kingdom
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 515037
Summary
Bronze on verde antico, Dancing Girl, Charles Sykes (‘Rilette’) (1878-1950), 1922. A bronze figure of a nude girl dancing by Charles Sykes. The figure leaning backwards, her right leg and foot outstretched, her arms held out to balance her. On an integral circular bronze base, attached to a verde antico marble plinth. Signed on the base ‘Charles Sykes 1922’.
Full description
Charles Sykes is best-known today as the creator, in 1911, of one of the most recognisable art nouveau figures, the flying lady known as The Spirit of Ecstasy, that became the mascot used on Rolls Royce cars (Alistair Duncan, Art Deco Sculpture, London 2016, pp. 250-51). He was trained at the Royal Academy of Art and as a young man benefited from the patronage of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu. Sykes had an active career as a sculptor and as a designer of objects in precious metal, such as a series of cups for Royal Ascot or a sceptre for King Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. During the First World War he adopted the pseudonym ‘Rilette’, taken from a then well-known brand of cigarettes. He used the name Rilette, as well as another pseudonym, ‘Jacques d’Or’, for his cartoons, fashion designs, advertisements and other graphic work. As a sculptor, Sykes was a highly skilled modeller of the human figure; sculptures such as the Dancing Girl exemplify the art deco style that was fashionable during the decades after the First World War. Jeremy Warren 2019
Provenance
Identifiable in Anglesey Abbey inventory of 1940, p. 152, The Library, valued at £31; bequeathed to the National Trust by Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
On base: Charles Sykes 1922
Makers and roles
'Rilette', Charles Sykes (1875-1950/2), sculptor
References
'Anglesey Abbey, Lode, Cambridgeshire. An Inventory and Valuation of Furniture, Books, Ornamental Items & Household Effects .. prepared for Insurance Purposes’, Turner, Lord and Ransom, April 1940, p. 152. Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 136.