A Figure of Sculpture, a door knocker
Harry Bates (Stevenage 1850 - London 1899)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1880 - circa 1890
Materials
Bronze
Measurements
286 x 97 x 111 mm
Place of origin
United Kingdom
Order this imageCollection
Anglesey Abbey, Cambridgeshire
NT 515113
Summary
Bronze, allegory of ‘Sculpture’, door knocker, Harry Bates (Stevenage 1850 - London 1899), c. 1880-90 (model). A bronze doorknocker by Harry Bates depicting a naked female figure symbolising Sculpture. The naked woman stands upon a small console, her left knee projecting, holding in her left hand a small model of the ancient Greek sculpture the Venus de Milo, which she measures with a pair of calipers held in her right hand. Part of one arm of the calipers is broken off. The figure, which forms the knocker handle, is placed against an irregular-shaped backplate in the form of a cartouche, the ends of which are scrolled above Sculpture’s head and to the sides of her arms, ending at the bottom in a small head, perhaps that of the Gorgon Medusa.
Full description
The brilliant but short-lived sculptor Harry Bates had his first training as an apprentice, from 1869, with the architectural sculptors Farmer and Brindley. From 1879 he studied at the Lambeth School of Art, where he was taught by the French emigré sculptor Aimé-Jules Dalou, by whose style he was much influenced. Bates entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1881 and in 1883 won a gold medal and a travelling scholarship, which he used to go to France to work under Rodin, at the behest of Dalou. He returned in 1885 to London, where he worked until his early death. Bates’s works are varied, ranging from small allegorical and mythological reliefs, to complex figures such as the Mors Janua Vitae (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), in which both bronze and ivory are combined, to conventional large-scale sculpture such as the colossal equestrian statue of Field Marshal Lord Roberts, versions of which were made for Kolkata (Calcutta), Glasgow and Horse Guards Parade, London. This elegant doorknocker is an outstanding example of the principles of the New Sculpture movement as applied to a utilitarian object, intended for actual use as opposed to simply display. The knocker itself is formed from the full-bodied figure of the young woman symbolising Sculpture, who uses a pair of dividers to measure a tiny version of the famous Greek sculpture known as the Venus de Milo, in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The figure rests within the enveloping cloak of the backplate with its scrolling edges, the slightly sinister aspect of which is enhanced by the small female head at the bottom, somewhat resembling the Gorgon Medusa. The artistic quality of the bronze is greater than its functionality as a practical object. The figure of the woman is not easy to grasp, nor is there an effective striking point for the knocker. The model is probably to be identified with the ‘ door-knocker – silver’ exhibited by Bates in 1892 at the Royal Academy (The Exhibition of the Royal Academy, 1892. The 124th, London 1892, no. 1949), which was in turn almost certainly the same model as was exhibited in an important exhibition held in 1902 at the Fine Art Society, the catalogue of which had an introduction by M.H. Speelmann entitled ‘Sculpture for the Home’ (First Exhibition of Statuettes by the Sculptors of Today, British and French, Fine Art Society, London, March 1902, p.9, no. 31A). This exhibition included work by all the main proponents of the New Sculpture, among the exhibits several works now represented in the collections at Anglesey Abbey (Alfred Gilbert, no. 6, Perseus (NT 515027), no. 8, Comedy and Tragedy (NT 515042), no. 39, Offering to Hymen (NT 515067); Lord Leighton, nos. 38 & 42, The Sluggard (NT 515028). The introductory essay by Spielmann was a manifesto encouraging the buying of more sculpture by the public: ‘There is no more convincing sign of a fine taste than a love and appreciation of sculpture.’ (‘Sculpture for the Home’, p. 3). Nevertheless, sales of New Sculpture works continued to be disappointing, no doubt in part because prices were very high when compared to the disposable incomes even of professional people, as a copy of the 1902 catalogue annotated with prices indicates (Beattie 1983, pp. 199, 260, note 61). Bates’s doorknocker was priced in the catalogue at the high price of £42, significantly more than the £15 asked for casts of Leighton’s Sluggard. A door knocker of this type was formerly in the Handley-Read collection, identified by the artist’s son from a photograph as the work of his father (Handley-Read 1968, no. 8; Jervis 1972, p. 105, no. F5). A version of the knocker was sold by Sotheby’s Paris (Klaus Otto Preis collection, 9 November 2005, lot 127). Another version, formerly with Peter Nahum at the Leicester Galleries, depicted a small winged figure being measured instead of the Venus de Milo. Yet another version was given by Bates to the sculptor Alfred Drury. Jeremy Warren 2019
Provenance
Acquired by Urban Huttleston Rogers Broughton, 1st Lord Fairhaven (1896-1966) by 1940; identifiable in the Anglesey Abbey inventory of 1940, p. 262, Passage and Telephone Room, ‘A Bronze “Nymph” door knocker, valued at £5; bequeathed to the National Trust by Lord Fairhaven with the house and the rest of the contents.
Credit line
Anglesey Abbey, The Fairhaven Collection (The National Trust)
Makers and roles
Harry Bates (Stevenage 1850 - London 1899), sculptor
References
Beattie 1983: Susan Beattie, The New Sculpture, New Haven and London 1983, p. 199, p. 260, note 61. Handley-Read 1968: Lavinia Handley-Read, British Sculpture 1850-1914, exh. cat., Fine Art Society, London 1968, no. 8. Jervis 1972: Simon Jervis (ed.) Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Art. The Handley-Read Collection, exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London 1972, p. 105, no. F5. '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. 262. Christie, Manson & Woods 1971: The National Trust, Anglesey Abbey, Cambridge. Inventory: Furniture, Textiles, Porcelain, Bronzes, Sculpture and Garden Ornaments’, 1971, p. 156.