Alfred Drury - The Age of Innocence
Alfred Drury - The Age of Innocence
2830
ALFRED DRURY, RA
(1856-1944)
The Age of Innocence
Signed: A DRURY
Bronze on green marble base
Height including base 22 cm., 8 ¾
Born in Islington, London, Drury was raised in Oxford where his father owned and inn. He attended Oxford School of Art and then the National Art Training School, South Kensington (1877-1881) where he was taught by F W Moody and then by the French sculptor Jules Dalou. Between 1881-5 Drury worked in Paris with Dalou and on his return to London he worked briefly as an assistant to Sir Edgar Boehm. He was a key artist of the New Sculpture movement and during his long career he completed many architectural groups and figure pieces. His major commissions for architectural and monumental works including groups for Leeds City Square, the front of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Vauxhall Bridge and the War Office Building, Whitehall.
This a small version of Drury’s 1897 marble bust exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1897 (now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London). It was so successful that Drury made a number of versions in bronze, some being full size of head and shoulders with other reduced version of the head only. It followed Drury’s ideal busts of Agnes and Griselda which had heralded a new direction in the sculptor’s art and aligned him with the New Sculpture movement.
The sitter was Grace Doncaster, the daughter of a friend of the artist. The features of her sister Clarrie are seen on Drury’s figures of Morning and Evening in City Square, Leeds.
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The Age of InnocenceSigned: A DRURYBronze on green marble baseHeight including base 22 cm., 8 ¾ Born in Islington, London, Drury was raised in Oxford where his father owned and inn. He attended Oxford School of Art and then the National Art Training School, South Kensington (1877-1881) where he was taught by F W Moody and then by the French sculptor Jules Dalou. Between 1881-5 Drury worked in Paris with Dalou and on his return to London he worked briefly as an assistant to Sir Edgar Boehm. He was a key artist of the New Sculpture movement and during his long career he completed many architectural groups and figure pieces. His major commissions for architectural and monumental works including groups for Leeds City Square, the front of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Vauxhall Bridge and the War Office Building, Whitehall.This a small version of Drury’s 1897 marble bust exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1897 (now in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London). It was so successful that Drury made a number of versions in bronze, some being full size of head and shoulders with other reduced version of the head only. It followed Drury’s ideal busts of Agnes and Griselda which had heralded a new direction in the sculptor’s art and aligned him with the New Sculpture movement.The sitter was Grace Doncaster, the daughter of a friend of the artist. The features of her sister Clarrie are seen on Drury’s figures of Morning and Evening in City Square, Leeds.){kind=link}