Mellors & Kirk
Los 368
A fine English bronze statuette of an equestrienne, cast from a model by Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, Bt, RA (1834-1890), 1865, even rich brown patina, 49cm h The most illustruous and productive British sculptor of his generation, Boehm had only recently settled in London when he modelled the present figure. Queen Victoria, in particular, highly approved of his work and he was to receive over 40 royal commissions and countless more from aristocratic and distinguished patrons throughout the 1870's and 1880's, with coins, medals, portraits, busts and monuments but above all thoroughbred horses, occasionally life-sized, such as that of "King Tom" for Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild (1818-1874) for his home Mentmore Towers, Buckinghamshire, at a cost of £1500. The identity of the elegant young horsewoman in the present magnificent bronze remains unknown. In1866 Boehm's "Mrs Henry Webster; Equestrian Portrait in Bronze" was amongst those of his works shown at The Royal Academy. In the absence of the discovery of evidence to the contrary, for he is a titan of the Victorian art world largely overlooked by recent scholarship, it and the present lot may well be one and the same The collection of C. W. Briggs (1906-1971) (lots 1-429) A fine cast in fine original condition; original patina, lacks reins
