
Oliver Cornish
Sale Coordinator for Furniture, Sculpture, Rugs & Tapestries
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£600 - £800
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Sale Coordinator for Furniture, Sculpture, Rugs & Tapestries
Gracie Doncaster, the daughter of a friend of the Drury served as the model for this bust. Art historian Benedict Read recognised the work as a significant example of the late 19th-century English New Sculpture movement. Drury's original plaster model dating from around 1896 likely served as the prototype for subsequent marble and bronze versions.
A plaster cast is held in the Victorian & Albert Museum (London). Bronze casts are held in the Laing Art Gallery (Newcastle), Manchester City Art Gallery, and the Harris Museum (Preston). Marble versions are located in Cartwright Hall (Bradford) and Blackburn Museum.
Owing to the bust's popular acclaim, several editions of bronzed plaster reductions were produced to meet public demand. This particular piece is probably one such example, perhaps dating from around the turn of the century.