Summer, Diving boy

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Summer, Diving boy

About the Item

A nude lead figure of a boy with both arms raised above his head seeming poised to dive into water, raised on a square plinth. Design by Walter Gilbert, modelled by Louis Weingartner. From the early 1900s Gilbert often worked in partnership with Swiss modeller Louis Weingartner on commissions for art metal work. This sculpture belonged to a series of works called 'Sculpture in the Garden', this figure is one of a collection of four called 'The Four Seasons'. This one, the diving boy, is called 'Summer'. The figure can be used as a fountain, the water issuing from the frog's mouth. On the right side of the base monogrammed and dated W.G. SCS L.W. ‘27 H. 115 cm; Base: W. 20 cm, D. 24 cm Provenance: by direct family descent. Walter Gilbert (English, 1871-1946) Walter Gilbert (1871–1946) was an English sculptor and father to sculptor and modeller Donald Gilbert. He had an educational career that spanned western Europe, India and the United States. First, and under Benjamin Creswick (1853-1946), he studied at Birmingham Municipal School of Art and from 1890 to 1893 at the National Art Training School (today the Royal College of Art). Having completed his studies, Gilbert sought out training around the world: in India, the United States, Belgium, France and Germany. After a short career as an instructor, Gilbert co-founded in 1898 the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts (1898–1966), a company of modern artists and designers associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement. The Guild was established through a formal partnership between Gilbert, local landowner William Whitehouse and the architectural firm Crouch and Butler (Birmingham-based architects). Walter Gilbert described in 1903 the aims of the Guild in The Craftsman magazine: “The members of the Guild are individuals who have advanced beyond the limits of ‘professionalism’, that they might adopt the more prolific method of thinking and working in their media. These men and women, while they stand pledged to co-operation and mutual support, have individual studios and workshops altogether independent. Each department is financed and controlled separately by the guildsmen of the same department who train their apprentices: choosing and employing only those who are capable of developing the main idea of the master craftsman.” The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts was founded on the 26 November 1898. It grew out of the Bromsgrove School of Art which moved to new premises in 1895. In February 1898 Walter Gilbert was appointed Headmaster. The School's Committee hoped that Gilbert's expertise in metal work would attract students to the school. They also wanted a 'guild of technical art' that would 'develop into a significant commercial enterprise, where skilled craftsmen could find well paid work'. It is unclear whether the idea to found a Guild came from Gilbert, or was already in the minds of the Committee. Work on the Guild began in November 1898, and in 1899 a cottage and land was purchased in Station Street. Gilbert also negotiated with the art school to use some of their rooms in the Crescent. The Guild premises were built in 1899 by John Bowen 'to plans drawn up by Crouch and Butler'. In the early years of the Guild its members worked from individual workshops and studios in Bromsgrove, Birmingham, London, etc. Walter Gilbert organised the work from the central premises in Station Street, Bromsgrove, which was the location of the main metalwork department. Richard Tapp ran the wood shop that produced furniture and later became the woodcarving shop. This was located at Moat Mill, Bromsgrove. In 1901 the guild bought equipment for jewellery making and rented an enamelling shop in Bromsgrove where gem and fine metal work was produced. The Guild also set up a plaster workshop in Puddle Wharf, Stoke Heath, which was run by Henry Ludlow. George Percy Bankart joined the business in partnership with Henry Ludlow in 1899. In 1903 the plaster workshop was expanded and an associated lead workshop was established. The lead shop was initially based in rooms rented from the Bromsgrove School of Art and then later moved to Station Street. At this time the Guild bought the shop from Ludlow and Bankart. The Bromsgrove Guild participated in 1900 in the Exposition Universelle in Paris and was awarded nine medals. In 1901 the metal workshop was expanded. By 1902 representatives of the Guild were based in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Newcastle and the West Country. They also frequently exhibited their members’ works in Liverpool, Leeds, Bolton, Bristol and London. In 1903 the Guild took part in the exhibition of the Arts and Craft Exhibition Society in London that promoted the exhibition of decorative arts alongside fine arts. These exhibitions were important in the flowering of the British Arts and Crafts Movement in the decades prior to World War I. In 1905 the Guild was commissioned to work on Aston Webb's project to provide railings and gates enclosing Buckingham Palace. The Guild's employees designed and made the gates and the Queen Victoria Memorial. The project was completed in 1908. By 1905 the satellite workshops in Birmingham were supplying stained glass, leaded glass, embroidery, cartoons and painted designs. All other work, including mosaic and furniture making, was being completed in Bromsgrove. A year later Archibald John Davies established a glass workshop in Bromsgrove. On 1 July 1906 Gilbert and Whitehouse dissolved their partnership and on the 9 July William McCandlish became Gilbert's new partner. The Guild executed numerous medallic works in the early 1900s although only one medal was cast, the rest being struck. In 1907 Ernest Cowper set up the Guild's new foundry in Station Street. Walter Gilbert and Louis Weingartner produced the Guild's garden statuary commissions from the workshop in Weaman Street, Birmingham, from c. 1913 onwards. Among other realisations, their collaboration included the public works as the Liverpool Cathedral reredos for architect Giles Gilbert Scott (1880-1960), the Masonic Peace Memorial's Grand Temple gates for architects Winston Newman and H.V. Ashley, the Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace gates for architect Sir Aston Webb (1849-1930). In December 1921 the company became a limited company and this was registered in June 1922. During the 1920s the metalwork department produced decorative pieces in a wide variety of materials (bronze, iron, lead), name plates and memorial tablets. The Guild also offered modelling, carving and woodwork, stained glass, and mural decoration. It opened branches in Belfast and New York. Towards the end of the decade the firm became involved in the production of standardized goods including: signs, gates, rails, casements, canopies, memorial plaques, ecclesiastical objects, sundials, pendant light fittings, etc. The Guild’s fortunes were adversely effected by depression during the 1930s. In its final twenty years (ca. 1946-1966) the company was managed by George Whewell. By this stage the firm had lost much of its specialist expertise leading Whewell to sub-contract many of the Guild’s post-war commissions. As a result the size of the workforce steadily declined until there was only a skeleton staff. After his career as a director at the Guild from 1899 until August 1918, Gilbert moved over to H.H. Martyn & Co. (since 1900 Ltd) (1888-1971) where he acted as assistant manager of the sculpting and architectural decoration business. His son was also employed as a modeller by this firm. After Gilbert had left the Guild, Weingartner also ceased working at the Bromsgrove Guild around 1921 and also choose for H.H. Martyn & Co. H.H. Martyn & Co. had been founded in 1888 in London by Herbert Henry Martin, a carver of stone, marble and wood, specialised in gravestones, memorials and ecclesiastical decoration. The company employed wood, stone and plaster carvers, metal and glass workers and also had studios in Cheltenham and Birmingham. H.H. Martyn & Co. Ltd was a company with a reputation for excellence and a wide range of activities that was unique for its time. Father Walter and son Donald collaborated on many works. Walter Gilbert retired in 1940 and died six years later on 23 January in Littlehampton (Sussex), Gilbert. The Hanbury church St Mary the Virgin in Worcestershire preserves the memorial that Donald Gilbert created in memory of his father and Weingartner. An extensive list of works by Walter Gilbert is mentioned on internet (cfr infra the literature refrences) and includes the works realised by Gilbert himself and those made in collaboration with other artists such as Louis Weingartner with the Bromsgrove Guild and H. H. Martyn & Co (Ltd) and with his son Donald Gilbert and H. H. Martyn & Co (Ltd). Walter Gilbert participated in many exhibitions including those at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool in 1884 and Leeds City Art Gallery in 1902 and 1906. During his lifetime Gilbert also involved himself with the design of glass and garden furnishings. In 1927, the February issue of Architectural Review featured Gilbert’s and Weingartner’s lead sculpture of a Fawn (1928) and Leveret sculptures in an article on the garden of Mr F. Tillotson (Hillside, Heaton, Lancashire). This lead garden sculpture of a young fawn seated on a square base, holding a set of windpipes with one finger raised was signed in the cast W.G Scs. L.W. '28'. Other works of their garden statuary can be seen in Gilbert and Weingartner's Sculpture in the Garden. Louis Weingartner (Swiss, ? – 1934) The Swiss-born artist Louis Weingartner probably originated from Lucerne where Weingartner's brother Seraphim became director of the Lucerne School of Arts and Crafts. Louis may have trained in Florence before working for the goldsmiths J. K. Bossard und Karl Th. Bossard in Lucerne. Here a fellow worker was Joseph (Josef) Anton Hodel (Lucerne 1874 – U.K. 1930) who later became a partner or associate after they both moved ca. 1900 to Britain. They shared a studio in London (ca. 1902-1904) and worked on various commissions including one in 1902. They both started ca. 1902 to work for the Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts. The details of Weingartner's Swiss background are based on Ken Fackrell's research into his grandfather's, Joseph Hodel's, life. Weingartner would be active in England from around 1900 until 1930. He was a designer, jeweller, medallist, modeller, sculptor and metal worker. He was active as a jeweller at the School of Art in Birmingham before het worked on various commissions for the Bromsgrove Guild including one in 1902. The cooperation with Gilbert started around 1903. Weingartner moved to Bromsgrove in 1904 and became the Guild's chief designer, sculptor and metal worker. For Weingartner this was the start of a long association with Walter Gilbert concentrating on works in metal and in the early 1920s leading to collaboration with H.H. Martyn & Co in Cheltenham after 1918. In that year Walter Gilbert became assistant manager of the company for five years with responsibilities for artistic direction. Weingartner left the Bromsgrove Guild in 1921. He returned to Lucerne in 1930 where he died in 1934. Weingartner exhibited his Aphrodite Comb during The Spring Exhibition in Leeds City Art Gallery in 1902. He also produced a model of the great lock that was commissioned for the Buckingham Palace project in ca. 1905-1908. In 1927, the February issue of Architectural Review featured Gilbert’s and Weingartner’s lead sculpture of a 'Fawn' (1928) and 'Leveret sculptures' in an article on the garden of Mr F. Tillotson (Hillside, Heaton, Lancashire). This lead garden sculpture of a young fawn seated on a square base, holding a set of windpipes with one finger raised was signed in the cast W.G Scs. L.W. '28'. Other works of their garden statuary can be seen in Gilbert and Weingartner's book 'Sculpture in the Garden'. Literature: Medhurst, Ph. (2012), Walter Gilbert: The Romance in Metalwork. An Annotated Inventory of Works by Architectural a Sculptor Walter Gilbert and Associates; Townshend, J. (1999), 'The Bromsgrove Guild of Applied Arts' in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', p. 9-52; Goodwin, M. & Townshend, J. (1999), 'The Workers at the Bromsgrove Guild' in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', p. 53-69; There is an extensive list of Guild commissions in the West Midlands (alphabetically by location) in Goodwin, M. & Lammas, Th. (1999), 'A Gazetteer of Bromsgrove Guild work in the West Midlands' in Watt 'The Bromsgrove Guild', p. 91-125; Catalogue of the Spring Exhibition (1902), Leeds: The City Art Gallery, (no 237), p. 26; website 'Joseph (Josef) Anton Hodel', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011: http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib5_1208550288 (consulted 09.10.2015); website 'Louis Weingartner', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011: http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib4_1243854725 (consulted 09.10.2015); 'Bromsgrove Guild', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib4_1241533221 (consulted 09.10.2015); website https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Walter_Gilbert (consulted 09.10.2015).

Creator:
Walter Gilbert (Sculptor),Louis Weingartner 1 (Sculptor)
Dimensions:
Height: 45.28 in (115.02 cm)Width: 7.87 in (19.99 cm)Depth: 9.84 in (25 cm)
Materials and Techniques:
Lead,Cast
Place of Origin:
England
Period:
1920-1929
Date of Manufacture:
1927
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Brussels & Antwerp, BE
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU95163405102