Fumus Gloria Mundi
John Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
circa 1890
Materials
Terracotta
Measurements
365 x 270 mm
Order this imageCollection
Bateman's, East Sussex
NT 761572
Summary
A terracotta oblong relief of a half-length self-portrait of John Lockwood Kipling seated reading a book with a pipe in his mouth, ca. 1890. Inscribed: FUMUS GLORIA MUNDI [Smoke is the world's glory] - referring to the seventeeth-century Amsterdam town-physician and poet W. G. van Focquenbroch (1640 - 1670) - a saying which appeared on many Dutch genre pictures with the more subtle meaning that the glory of the world is only smoke.
Provenance
Bequeathed by Caroline Starr Balestier, Mrs Rudyard Kipling (1862-1939) with house and contents
Marks and inscriptions
Fumus Gloria Mundi
Makers and roles
John Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911), sculptor