Sir George James Frampton, RA (British, 1860-1928): A rare and apparently unique patinated bronze...

Sir George James Frampton, RA (British, 1860-1928): A rare and apparently unique patinated bronze bust of St. George dated 1905 the young male saint clad in armour with downcast eyes, his helmet with deep visor adorned with chain mail, his breastplates with two buckled straps, his backplate with a single buckled strap, his right shoulder raised, the arms erased, the rear signed and dated G.FRAMPTON, 1905 , 38.5cm high overall Footnotes: Provenance: By family repute gifted by the sculptor to the vendor's great grandfather, John Henry Frederick Bacon, ARA (British, 1865-1914) Thence by descent to the vendor. Frampton and St George: The present lot, dated 1905, appears to be a cast bust reduction study for the smaller than life size bronze figure of St George on the King Edward VII Memorial in Northampton which was unveiled by King George V in 1913. The warrior saint is depicted on the monument as a slender, beautiful young man in elegant armour and there are undoubtedly influences of Frampton's contemporary Albert Gilbert who produced his own figure of St George for the Prince Albert memorial in the chapel at Windsor, dating from some ten years earlier. Frampton's full length figure of St George for the Northampton monument holds his right arm aloft as if indicating a weapon being raised above his head (originally the figure held a long sword, almost the height of the figure - now lost) and includes full armour and shield. Although the offered bust mirrors the pose of the full figure with the indication of an upheld right arm, these are not included in the composition. As such the feature of the neatly erased arms to the bust perhaps suggests that the cast, as a finished composition, may have been taken from the working model, perhaps as a gift. This is also confirmed by its earlier date (1905) in comparison to the monument (1913). In addition the use of St George as figural theme was not unique to the Northampton monument. Frampton's interest in St George as a theme however dates back to the late 1890s as he adapted his figure of the saint from a statuette of St George that surmounted the orb held by Queen Victoria on his famous and highly acclaimed Calcutta Memorial commissioned to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee. Although the statuette differs from the Northampton figure in that the right arm of the former is not raised, its influence is still undoubted. The importance of this small statuette to the overall composition is certainly felt by the writer of The Introduction to Royal Academy Pictures in 1899 who stated that statuette 'is the one power in the art world that sees irresistible, and its influence is daily becoming more convincing. Similarly, Frampton later used his figure of St George from the Northampton monument as the basis of his Maidstone War Memorial, with a near identical St George used in similar pose but holding a flagpole in place of a sword which was inaugurated in 1922. Sir George James Frampton, RA (British, 1860-1928): A key figure in the New Sculpture movement that championed dynamism and physical realism in sculpture, Sir George Frampton is best known today for his statue of Peter Pan, installed in Kensington Gardens. Frampton was born into a family of stone carvers. He initially worked in an architect's office before deciding to follow his father's profession. He studied sculpture at Lambeth School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools, where he met the artist Christine Cockerell. The two married in 1893 and their son, the painter Meredith Frampton, was born the following year. Frampton's reputation rose rapidly and he attracted early acclaim for his skilled use of many different materials, such as in his 1899 polychromatic bust, Lamia. Together with Lord Leighton, Sir Alfred Gilbert and Hamo Thornycroft, his work was seen as part of the 'New Sculpture' movement and was characterised by a sense of dynamism and layers of rich symbolism. After Queen Victoria's death in 1901, Frampton was commissioned to produce a bronze portrait bust to be installed in Calcutta and a full-length statue for memorials in Winnipeg, Merseyside and Leeds. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1904 and knighted two years later. Frampton enjoyed collaborating with architects and carried out decorative friezes for many public and private buildings, including Lloyd's Registry of Shipping, London (1898- 1901). In 1912, Frampton was commissioned by J.M. Barrie to produce a sculpture of Barrie's beloved character Peter Pan, who had first appeared on the stage eight years earlier. Barrie saw the sculpture as a gift for the children of London, and took out an announcement in The Times on the morning of its instalment, reading: 'There is a surprise in store for the children who go to Kensington Gardens to feed the ducks in the Serpentine this morning ... a May-day gift by Mr J M Barrie, a figure of Peter Pan blowing his pipe on the stump of a tree.' Frampton died in 1928 and his son Meredith took over his studio. Two years later, a memorial to him was installed in St Paul's Cathedral, showing a child holding a miniature version of Frampton's beloved Peter Pan. John Henry Frederick Bacon, ARA (British, 1865-1914) The second son of the well-known lithographer, John Cardanall Bacon, John Henry Frederick Bacon established himself in his teenage years as a gifted black-and-white illustrator and undertook a professional tour of India and Burma. He studied at Westminster School of Art, under the painter and art teacher Frederick Brown (British, 1851-1941), and at the Royal Academy Schools, winning the Creswick Prize for Landscape Painting in 1888. A year later, he began to exhibit regularly at the Royal Academy of Art. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1903. Bacon and his wife lived at Pillar House, Harwell, Berkshire but returned to London in 1899, living in Hampstead before moving to St John's Wood. It was during the 1890s that Bacon moved back to illustrating, working on books and contributing to periodicals. Bacon contributed to some significant editions of the works of Charles Dickens, including Dombey and Son, Little Dorrit and Martin Chuzzlewit for Gresham's Imperial Edition of 1901. Bacon's images helped construct perceptions of nation and empire, as in his most famous paintings – The City of London Imperial Volunteers Return to London from South Africa (1900, Guildhall) and the Coronation Portrait of King George V and Queen Mary (1912, Buckingham Palace). He was awarded the Royal Victorian Order in 1913. It is very likely that Frampton and Bacon were close artistic colleagues and interacted regularly, perhaps especially when Bacon moved back to London. A sketch of Frampton by Bacon dating from 1901 (The Studio Volume 22, The Offices of the Studio Ltd. London 1901) confirms that the sculptor would have sat for the artist around this time. In addition verbal recollections and reminiscences passed down through the Bacon family to the present vendor confirm that members of the Royal Family frequently came for portrait sittings at the family's London home in the early 20th century. As such, given that the bust of St George was probably gifted to Bacon by Frampton, it seems most likely that Frampton and Bacon, with their multiple commissions for Royal monuments and Royal portraits, would have had much in common and may well have even have been close friends if their paths crossed regularly. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com