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Not currently on display at the V&A

Needless Alarms

Statuette
11/11/1897 (made), 1897 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This bronze statuette is made after a model by Frederic Lord Leighton and published by Arthur Leslie Collie in 1897.

It represents a nude figure of a young girl standing upon a circular wooden base and looking over her shoulder at a frog. The present composition, is primarily a study of the human figure. The publisher Arthur Leslie Collie, produced relatively inexpensive bronze statuettes by leading contemporary sculptors from 1890 up until 1901, when his business failed mainly due to French competition.

Frederic Leighton (1830-96) was born in Scarborough in 1830, the son of a physician. After receiving an all round education, he studied art at Frankfurt under Steinle, and at Brussels, Paris and Rome. In 1852 he began to work independently and spent the next three years in Rome. Leighton's painting Cimabue's Madonna carried through Florence (1853-55) was his first major work, and an immediate success. When it was shown at the Royal Academy in 1855, it was bought by Queen Victoria. Leighton settled in London in 1859, though he frequently travelled abroad; he was elected ARA in 1864 and RA in 1868, and attained the Presidency of the Royal Academy in 1878. He was the most influential of the Victorian Classical painters, and an important exponent of the 'subjectless' painting associated with the Aesthetic Movement, in which pictorial narrative is suppressed in favour of beauty and atmosphere. Leighton died on 25 January 1896 and is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleNeedless Alarms (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Bronze
Brief description
Statuette, bronze, 'Needless Alarms', after a model by Frederic Lord Leighton, published by Arthur Leslie Collie, England, 1897
Physical description
Statuette. Bronze figure of a nude young girl standing upon a circular wooden base and looking over her shoulder at a frog. On the base inscribed.
Dimensions
  • Height: 50cm
  • Base height: 17cm
  • Weight: 8.46kg
Marks and inscriptions
'Pubd by Arthur L. Collie, 39b Old Bond Street, London, November 11, 1897' (on the base at the back)
Object history
Purchased from Messrs Ernest E. Brown & Phillips, The Leicester Galleries, 20 Green Street, Leicester Square, London in 1905, for £15 15s.
Historical context
Lord Leighton was a highly successful painter and sculptor, who became President of the Royal Academy. The present composition, is primarily a study of the human figure. The publisher Arthur Leslie Collie, produced relatively inexpensive bronze statuettes by leading contemporary sculptors from 1890 up until 1901, when his business failed mainly due to French competition.
Production
after a model by Frederic Lord Leighton
Subjects depicted
Summary
This bronze statuette is made after a model by Frederic Lord Leighton and published by Arthur Leslie Collie in 1897.

It represents a nude figure of a young girl standing upon a circular wooden base and looking over her shoulder at a frog. The present composition, is primarily a study of the human figure. The publisher Arthur Leslie Collie, produced relatively inexpensive bronze statuettes by leading contemporary sculptors from 1890 up until 1901, when his business failed mainly due to French competition.

Frederic Leighton (1830-96) was born in Scarborough in 1830, the son of a physician. After receiving an all round education, he studied art at Frankfurt under Steinle, and at Brussels, Paris and Rome. In 1852 he began to work independently and spent the next three years in Rome. Leighton's painting Cimabue's Madonna carried through Florence (1853-55) was his first major work, and an immediate success. When it was shown at the Royal Academy in 1855, it was bought by Queen Victoria. Leighton settled in London in 1859, though he frequently travelled abroad; he was elected ARA in 1864 and RA in 1868, and attained the Presidency of the Royal Academy in 1878. He was the most influential of the Victorian Classical painters, and an important exponent of the 'subjectless' painting associated with the Aesthetic Movement, in which pictorial narrative is suppressed in favour of beauty and atmosphere. Leighton died on 25 January 1896 and is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.
Bibliographic references
  • Penny, N. Ashmolean Museum Catalogue Oxford, 1992, p. 67
  • Sir Alfred Gilbert and The New Sculpture, British Sculpture 1850-1930, London: The Fine Art Society, 2008, p. 70
  • Beattie, Susan. The New Sculpture New Haven and London: Yale, 1983, pp. 175, 199
  • Tate Britain. Exposed: The Victorian Nude, nos. 123-4, pp. 195
  • Forrest, Michael. Art Bronzes. Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publications Ltd, 1988, p. 328
  • Bilbey, Diane with Trusted, Marjorie, British Sculpture 1470 to 2000. A Concise Catalogue of the Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London: V& A Publications, 2002. pp. 323
  • List of Works of Art Acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum in the Years 1905 - 1908. In: List of Works of Art Acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, During the Year 1905, Arranged According to the Dates of Acquisition with Appendix and Indices. London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, by Eyre and Spottiswoode, Limited, 1909, p. 205
  • Parkes, , K., Sculpture of Today, I, London, 1921, p. 131
  • Atterbury, Paul, Heavenly Bodies: Sculptural Responses to the Human Form, Burghley House, Stamford, 2006
Collection
Accession number
1054-1905

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Record createdJune 9, 2008
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