A LARGE VICTORIAN WHITE MARBLE PLAQUE

A LARGE VICTORIAN WHITE MARBLE PLAQUE

BY HENRY ALFRED PEGRAM (1862-1937)

relief carved with two scantily clad figures within billowing clouds and drapery, signed "Henry Pegram Sct", together with an iron mount (2)

102 x 70.7cm

Catalogue Note

Henry Alfred Pegram (1862-1937)
Henry Alfred Pegram RA was an English sculptor and an exponent of the New Sculpture movement, which sought to disrupt the traditional academic style of the Victorian era by placing a greater emphasis on naturalistic forms and spiritualist themes. Pegram attended the Royal Academy Schools from 1881 and, upon graduation in 1887, worked as studio assistant for Hamo Thornycroft until 1891. At this time, he was influenced by the Symbolist aesthetic of Alfred Gilbert, as well as the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, becoming a member of the Art Workers’ Guild in 1890. Pegram was later elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1904 and a Royal Academician in 1922 with his diploma work Olive, The Artist’s Daughter (RA Collection, accession number 03/1808). Pegram exhibited his work at the Royal Academy throughout his career, most notably in 1889 one of his best-known works, Ignis Fatuus (Tate, accession number N01756). This relief shares many stylistic similarities with the panel offered here. The dynamic composition, emphasised by the background of finely worked clouds, relates the two works, as well as the classically inspired subject, particularly the delicately rendered female form, displaying Pegram’s celebrated finesse of execution.