Footnotes

Provenance
Private Collection, U.K.

'So here we are, integral parts of the natural world, acting as natures' agents, infinitesimally tiny players in the vast cosmos. In my particular little corner, when I carve a face into the stone, I seem to be acting out my self consciousness onto the stone, a stone that holds some of the history of the globe, formed of the very same original kind of material that I am formed of – a process begun billions and billions of years ago in the origins of our universe. I put a little modern consciousness back onto nature, who made both me and the stone.' – (Emily Young, A Stone Story: Notes on Working with Stone in the 21st Century, emilyyoung.com, 2007).

Emily Young practices a process known as 'free sculpture', where she approaches each block of stone without pre-conceived ideas, instead allowing the form to emerge organically. In the present lot, Purbeck Freestone Angel, Young uses her chosen medium to help shape the features of the figure itself: the rough, unhewn stone flows out behind the angel's face suggestive at once of both a halo of hair or an otherworldly aura, while the rugged quality of the cheeks gives the impression that this spirit has borne witness to the ravages of time. This is particularly apt given that Young has chosen Purbeck Freestone for this sculpture, a limestone quarried in Dorset, which was formed in the Jurassic period - 140 million years ago - and is made up of millions of compacted shells. This limestone takes a particularly high polish and this quality is shown to excellent effect here, with the contrast between smooth, subtle features and rough stone especially heightened.

Young's poetic description in which she compares sculpting in stone to granting it consciousness is particularly evocative in relation to this lot, as the features emerge from the stone as though the Angel is just awakening, or deep in peaceful slumber. There is a sense of divine peacefulness that emanates from the figure, as though they are keeping heavenly watch over the earth and its inhabitants. The Angel's features are cut into the face in deft movements, the eyelids closed and signified with delicately arcing crescents. When viewed head-on, the asymmetrical quality of the face - with eyes at slightly varying heights and a just-perceptible dip to the lips - lends a sense of softness and movement, as though this benevolent spirit is turning slightly, or dreaming while asleep. As Young has lyrically noted: 'The looks on the faces of the angels are not planned as such, they arrive and surprise me often with their softness and sadness, and strength and calm. But like all good angels, they have a certain graveness, an objectivity, a touch of the infinite, and a certain compassion.' (Emily Young, Working with Stone, emilyyoung.com, 2003).

The effect of viewing the sculpture in the round is significant: face-on, the Angel appears graceful and passive, but viewed from the side the Angel emerges as warrior, with stalwart profile, the nose and forehead in one strong line. With slightly furrowed brow and just-pursed lips, they appear to embody all the divine power we would expect from such a figure. Here the physicality and weight of the stone comes to the fore, the expression of this Angel at one with the rough, impregnable nature of the medium, at once immovable physically and unquestionable in purpose and will.

Both strong and silent, timeless and divine, Emily Young's Purbeck Freestone Angel shows the sculptor's prowess at transforming this ancient medium into a tangible presence, one whom seems to live outside the ages yet take a human form. Young's skill at harnessing the power of the medium she uses is quite unparalleled among contemporary sculptors and has led to the deserved accolade of being heralded as 'Britain's greatest living stone sculptor' (Financial Times).

We are grateful to EY Sculpture UK for their assistance in cataloguing this lot.