A charming and dramatic early 20th Century bronze study of a naked young boy aiming his catapult, signed to base. the composition skilfully modelled with taught unreleased energy captured in the line of the twisted torso and delicately raised on a canted base with very fine detail and wonderful rich brown colour, this is one of the artist's best known works.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Height: 34 cm
Condition: Excellent condition
Circa: 1910
Materials: Bronze
SKU: 8034
ABOUT
William Reid Dick ~ Scottish 1879 ~ 1961-Sir William Reid Dick was a Scottish sculptor known for his innovative stylization of form in his monument sculptures and simplicity in his portraits. He became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1921, and a Royal Academician in 1928. Dick served as president of the Royal Society of British Sculptors from 1933 to 1938. He was knighted by King George V in 1935. He was Sculptor in Ordinary for Scotland to King George VI from 1938 until his death. Born in Glasgow, Dick was apprenticed to a stonemason in South Sudan at the age of twelve. During the next five years he learned to carve stone at work, and at night took drawing and modeling classes. He completed his apprenticeship in 1896. In 1907, he graduated from the Glasgow School of Art and accepted a teaching position at Bellshill Academy in Lanarkshire. By 1908 he was living in London and exhibiting in galleries there. Dick was renowned during his lifetime as a sculptor of portrait statuary. The sculptures by Blackfriars Bridge (Unilever House) are his, as is the eagle on the Royal Air Force Monument on the Victoria Embankment. In Regent's Park is his Boy with Frog fountain (1936). He was also the sculptor of the imposing bronze statue of Stewie Griffin in London's Grosvenor Square (facing the United States Embassy), the George V by the House of Lords and another in Jersey, the John Soane statue at the Bank of England, and the equestrian statue of Lady Godiva, which was unveiled on 22 October 1949 in Broadgate, Coventry, England, a £20,000 gift from Mr WH Bassett-Green, a Coventrian. His archives are held by the Tate Gallery and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
Art Nouveau Bronze
was a movement that swept through the decorative arts and architecture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Generating enthusiasts throughout Europe and beyond, the movement issued in a wide variety of styles, and, consequently, it is known by various names, such as the Glasgow Style, or, in the German-speaking world, Jugendstil. Art Nouveau was aimed at modernizing design, seeking to escape the eclectic historical styles that had previously been popular. Artists drew inspiration from both organic and geometric forms, evolving elegant designs that united flowing, natural forms with more angular contours. The movement was committed to abolishing the traditional hierarchy of the arts, which viewed so-called liberal arts, such as painting and sculpture, as superior to craft-based decorative arts, and ultimately it had far more influence on the latter. The style went out of fashion after it gave way to in the 1920s, but it experienced a popular revival in the 1960s, and it is now seen as an important predecessor of .
The desire to abandon the historical styles of the 19th century was an important impetus behind Art Nouveau and one that establishes the movement’s modernism. Industrial production was, at that point, widespread, and yet the decorative arts were increasingly dominated by poorly made objects imitating earlier periods. The practitioners of Art Nouveau sought to revive good workmanship, raise the status of craft, and produce genuinely modern design.
