Bronze Sculpture of Augustus John by Barney Seale, 1937

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Bronze Sculpture of Augustus John by Barney Seale, 1937

About the Item

Augustus John (1878–1961) studied at the Slade School in London (1894–99) with his sister Gwen John. Following a diving accident while on holiday his personality changed. He embarked on a bohemian lifestyle, drinking heavily and living in a caravan and camping with gypsies. As his painting became more daring his friend, Wyndham Lewis remarked that John had become a ‘great man of action into whose hands the fairies had placed a paintbrush instead of a sword’. Considered to be the most talented artist of his generation, by 1914 on the outbreak of the First World War, John was the best-known artist in Britain. By the 1920s John was Britain’s leading portrait painter. Among his sitters were Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw and T.E. Lawrence. Here we see the portraitist becoming the sitter, and according to Stanley Casson, John highly approved of Barney Seale’s sculpture of him and thus added his own signature to the original model. In the present version, his signature is visible on a bronze plaque set in the marble base. This sculpture has an attractive green patinated surface. Barney Seale was a student of both Frith and Henry Massey. He exhibited from 1936 at the Royal Scottish Academy and from 1937 to 1941 at the Royal Academy. He is famed for his striking portrait heads including the virtuoso violinist and composer Nicolò Paganini. Barney Seale's reputation rested on works of a broadly architectural nature, particularly large-scale pieces for temporary exhibitions and decorative schemes for ocean liners. These included a thirty-eight foot high group of a man, woman and child that surmounted the British Pavilion at the Empire Exhibition, Glasgow, 1938 and a sixteen foot long Royal Lion for the New York World Fair, 1939. He also created the Spirit of the North Atlantic for the Mauretania and bronze groups for the Caronia. Appropriately Seale worked from the studio in which Captain Adrian Jones (a fellow member of the Chelsea Arts Club) created the 'Quadriga' for the arch on Constitution Hill, Hyde Park Corner. Seale also painted in oils and created a number of portraits. Many of his sitters were friends and fellow artists, notably Augustus John, James Pryde, Thomas Cantrell Dugdale and C.R.W. Nevinson (with whom Seale exhibited at the Leger Galleries in 1931). He was a lively, sociable character who was an active member of a number of clubs (including the Arts Club, Savage and Chelsea Arts Club) and generous in his support of other artists. Seale was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, the Royal Society of British Sculptors and Royal Society of British Artists (from 1938).

Dimensions:
Height: 11.82 in (30 cm)Width: 11.03 in (28 cm)Depth: 9.85 in (25 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Bronze,Patinated
Place of Origin:
England
Period:
1930-1939
Date of Manufacture:
1937
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Bodicote, GB
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU4197312768432