Dame Elisabeth Frink R.A.

(British, 1930-1993)

Dog 28.4 cm. (11 1/8 in.) high

Footnotes

PROVENANCE:
Acquired by the family of the present owner circa 1992
Private Collection, U.K.

EXHIBITED:
Salisbury, Salisbury Library and Galleries, Elisabeth Frink: A Certain Unexpectedness, 1997 (another cast)

LITERATURE:
Edward Lucie-Smith, Elisabeth Frink; Sculpture Since 1984 And Drawings, Art Books International, London, 1994, p.20 & p.191, ref.no.SC73 (another cast ill.b&w)
Annette Ratuszniak, Elisabeth Frink; Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93, Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2013, p.188-189, cat.no.401 (another cast ill.b&w)

One of a number of late canine pieces sculpted by Frink in the final years of her prolific and illustrious career Dog is in fact her penultimate work. A subject that the artist first embarked upon in 1957, dogs sit within a much wider lifelong preoccupation with animal form that dominated her output. Classically composed in a pyramidal structure Dog closely relates to Leonardo's Dog (1990). Edward Lucie-Smith draws a parallel between these works and the Louvre's Egyptian Seated Scribe (4th dynasty) for the combined tone of patience and alertness. Lucie-Smith goes on to note that 'Frink's dogs are an excellent example of the way in which she managed to remain a popular, communicative artist at a time when the visual arts, sculpture in particular, were becoming increasingly esoteric'. (Edward Lucie-Smith, Elisabeth Frink, Sculpture Since 1984 And Drawings, Art Books International, London, 1994, p.22)

It is surely in part this simple appeal of man's best friend which led to this sculpture being elected as part of a project to raise funds for The Hospital of Sick Children, Great Ormond Street, London. Initially intended to be cast in an edition of 50 it seems however that this edition is incomplete and only about 30 works were in fact cast. An example of the artist's proof of this edition sold in these rooms for £133,250, 30 May 2012 (lot 99).