Alfred Gilbert

Sir Alexander and Lady Rosalind Gertrude Maitland, 6 Heriot Row, Edinburgh, by circa 1960;

Bequeathed to Lady Catherine Henderson, Hensol, Castle Douglas, circa 1960-2010;

Thence by descent to Admiral Sir Nigel and Lady Henderson;

Sotheby's London, 5 December 2012, lot 165;

Where acquired.

Alfred Gilbert’s Truth, Charity and Piety were conceived as the figurative elements adorning a monument to the Rt. Hon. Lord Arthur Russell (1825-92), brother of the Duke of Bedford. The memorial was commissioned by Russell’s wife, Lady Arthur Russell in 1892 for the Bedford family chapel in the church of St Michael’s in Chenies, Buckinghamshire. On first visiting the chapel in 1893, Gilbert was confronted by an overcrowded spectacle and so devised an ingenious solution, an ornate candlestick, inspired by Renaissance models, which would symbolise strength (the column), wisdom (the candle) and rememberance (upkeep). The three figures of Truth, Charity and Piety, which were to be joined by a fourth, Courage, represented the Christian virtues which Lord Russell was said to have possessed. The memorial was unveiled on 4^th April 1900, eight years after Gilbert had first received the commission. On seeing the completed monument, Lady Russell wrote to Gilbert, ‘I cannot tell you how very beautiful I think the figures … so full of feeling and bold in execution – I have indeed waited long but I have my reward’ (Dormant, 1985, op. cit. p. 196). A closely comparable set of bronze casts of the Truth, Charity and Piety are in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (inv. nos. 508, 509, 510).

RELATED LITERATURE

R. Dorment, Alfred Gilbert, New Haven and London, 1985, pp. 193-7; R. Dorment, Alfred Gilbert. Sculptor and Goldsmith, exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1986, pp. 177-80, no. 90-3; N. Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum. 1540 to the Present Day, Oxford, 1992, vol. iii, pp. 88-9, nos. 508, 509, 510; P. Skipwith, Sir Alfred Gilbert and The New Sculpture. British Sculpture 1850-1930, exh. cat. The Fine Art Society and Robert Bowman Gallery, London, p. 64