New Sculpture was an English artistic movement of the late 19th century, reacting against the stagnant sculptural scene of Victorian Britain. Works in the style began appearing at Royal Academy exhibitions from 1880, but the movement was not christened until Edmund Gosse’s 1894 Art Journal article, ‘The New Sculpture’. Gosse cited Lord Frederick Leighton’s Athlete Wrestling with a Python as an archetypal example. This dynamic bronze figure, bursting with vitality epitomised the ‘imaginative realism’ praised in exhibition reviews. Leighton and other leading sculptors such as Alfred Gilbert and Hamo Thornycroft revived the Italian Renaissance art of ‘lost wax’ bronze casting to finely render surface details like musculature and facial expressions in a more naturalistic manner.
The New Sculpture Movement
7 October 2024
John Mackie
New Sculpture rejected the stylised neo-classical works in white marble which had previously dominated the sculptural scene. Formerly subjects had been more traditionally didactic or taken from allegory. New Sculpture practitioners drew inspiration from poetry and myth, introducing Symbolism to the sculptural medium and conveying ideas over purely accurate representation.
This change in style and subject should also be considered within the wider societal and artistic landscape. The second half of the 19th century saw the emergence of an educated middle class with disposable income to spend on art. This development coincided with a marked increase in artists producing both paintings and sculptures, perhaps seeing the business potential in broadening their practice. Artists working across media bridged the divide between high and decorative art, elevating the status and desirability of the latter. Until the 1860s sculpture was primarily limited to the marble portrait bust or large classical figure, but smaller bronze casts were the perfect choice for the more modest middle-class home. Sculpture further enjoyed an increase in popularity through the cult of the statuette; a feature in late Victorian and Edwardian architectural design which enabled the classical heroic figure to fulfil a new decorative role within a domestic setting.
Lots 316-324, 330, 187 and 198 in our DESIGN Since 1860 auction come from the estate of the Late Dr. Susan Beattie. A historian and architecture specialist, Dr. Beattie wrote the seminal ‘The New Sculpture’, published in 1983 by the Paul Mellon Centre, and still consulted today as the authority on this subject. Beattie’s work explores the movement’s protagonists, their motivations and work anew, shedding light on a hitherto neglected and largely unacknowledged topic. Where previously Alfred Gilbert had been seen as a figure working in isolation, Beattie’s work illustrates the collaborative environment of the New Sculpture group and their quest to redefine art and its role in society.
Further superb examples of the movement featuring in our October 2024 auction from other collections include The Sluggard by Lord Frederic Leighton and An Invocation by Gilbert Bayes.
The Sluggard by Lord Frederic Leighton
The Sluggard, created in 1885-1886, is a pivotal piece in the New Sculpture movement, which emphasised naturalism and a departure from the rigidity of earlier Victorian art.
The sculpture portrays a young male nude stretching lazily, capturing a moment of languid awakening. The work was inspired by a spontaneous gesture of Leighton’s model, Giuseppe Valona, who stretched and yawned during a modelling session, prompting Leighton to immediately sketch the pose in clay.
Initially titled An Athlete Awakening from Sleeping, the piece was later renamed The Sluggard to emphasize its relaxed, almost indolent posture, contrasting with Leighton’s earlier, more dynamic work, An Athlete Wrestling with a Python. The sculpture was widely acclaimed and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1886, earning further recognition at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1889, where it was awarded a medal of honour.
The influence of contemporary French sculptors, particularly the naturalism of Rodin, is evident in this work. The Sluggard remains one of Leighton’s most celebrated sculptures, symbolising a significant shift towards more expressive and realistic forms in late 19th-century British art.
An Invocation by Gilbert Bayes
Gilbert Bayes' long and illustrious career began as a student under Sir George Frampton and Harry Bates at the Royal Academy Schools. As a result he became associated with the British New Sculpture movement and its focus on architectural sculpture, and was particularly influenced by Frampton and also by Alfred Gilbert.
Like them, Bayes was interested in polychromy in sculpture, the use of mixed materials and, especially in his early years, in Arthurian, Wagnerian and medieval subjects, as found in the present example.
An Invocation, a rare and possibly unique figure in bronze, was exhibited at The Fine Art Society in 1902 (where the plaster version sold for £40); Birmingham 1903; Glasgow, Portrait Painters 1905; Royal Academy, Wolverhampton 1912; Leicester Galleries 1914; and Sculpture Gallery 1915 where sold.
These beautifully crafted works will be offered in our 16 & 17 October DESIGN Since 1860 auction featuring an Aesthetic Interior: The Contents of a London Apartment.