Alfred Gilbert

The collection of Sir Dyce Duckworth;
Thence by descent

Royal Academy 1891 & 1986
Ipswich Museums and Galleries 1953-2010

R. Dorment, Alfred Gilbert: Sculptor and Goldsmith, London, 1986, no. 28, pp. 121-2

The conditition of this marble is very good and original. There is some minor dirt to the surface. There are a few scattered inclusions, consistent with the material, including a few around the base and a discoloured inclusion to her proper left cheek.At the proper right of her neck there are two small nicks to the ribband and her skin just above. There are some minor pencil marks to her proper left eye. One petal of the rose has been re-attached. There is a small, original hole at the fold of the ribband, probably for the attachment of a missing pendant.
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This is the first marble sculpture by Alfred Gilbert to appear at auction.

Elizabeth "Elsie" Dyce Duckworth was the daughter of the celebrated physician Sir Dyce Duckworth, who attended Queen Victoria and Edward VII. Tragically, Elsie died at the age of 13 on 20^th March 1884. From photographs or a painted portrait Sir Dyce commissioned Gilbert to produce this delicately evocative likeness.

Gilbert's skill and sensitivity as a marble carver are brilliantly illustrated in the portrait. The treatment of the face is particularly refined, as Gilbert conjures tender flesh out of the stone. Rather than a polished shine the surface is minutely worked with the chisel giving the skin a matt yet translucent finish. The hair also is brushed through with many tiny strands, curling in locks at the neck. Whilst the details of lace and flowers lighten the conception, the poignant nature of the portrait is not lost in the touching solemnity of Elsie's expression.

Alongside studies at the Royal Academy Gilbert worked in the studio of Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, favourite sculptor of the royal family. Boehm's studio was constantly working on his many portrait commissions in which, as Dorment writes, 'Boehm sought to distinguish in marble the texture of flesh, hair, pearls or fabric.' It seems likely that Gilbert learnt the practice of marble carving under Boehm's tutelage. By 1875 Gilbert had learnt everything he could from Boehm and he left for Paris, where he developed his gifts for modelling and his interest in the nude figure. Gilbert's first large-scale independent work was his marble Kiss of Victory now in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. He carved the piece with the aid of only one assistant in Rome, where he had moved with his family in 1878. It was in Italy that Dorment asserts Gilbert discovered the medium of bronze. His mastery of modelling and casting would go on to become one of the most distinguishing features of his career.

Gilbert also produced a portrait in bronze, with a reduced truncation and with the addition of portrait pendants of the girl's mother and father hung on the ribbon around her neck. Only one cast is known, sold in these rooms on 29^th March 1983. It is not known why the portrait was worked in both media, but Sir Dyce was delighted with the marble when he visited Gilbert's studio on 8^th January 1891 and asked the sculptor to exhibit it at the Royal Academy, which he did in June of that same year.