Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
Lot 90*,AR
Dame Elisabeth Frink R.A.(British, 1930-1993)Dead Leveret (Dead Rabbit) 101.4 cm. (39 3/4 in.) high (including base)
29 May 2013, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£25,000 - £35,000
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Christopher Dawson
Head of Department
Ingram Reid
Director
Dame Elisabeth Frink R.A. (British, 1930-1993)
Dead Leveret (Dead Rabbit)
bronze with a brown patina on a steel base
101.4 cm. (39 3/4 in.) high (including base)
Plaster conceived circa 1954, bronze cast 9 April 1956 at the Galizia & Sons Foundry, London, unique
bronze with a brown patina on a steel base
101.4 cm. (39 3/4 in.) high (including base)
Plaster conceived circa 1954, bronze cast 9 April 1956 at the Galizia & Sons Foundry, London, unique
Footnotes
PROVENANCE:
Hon. Robert Erskine
Sale; Sotheby's, London, 27 June 1979, lot 151 (as Leveret), where acquired by the present owner
EXHIBITED:
London, St. George's Gallery, Elisabeth Frink, May-June 1955, cat.no.3 (as Dead Rabbit, plaster cast exhibited)
LITERATURE:
Jill Wilder, Elisabeth Frink Sculpture; Catalogue Raisonné, Harpvale, London, 1984, p.141, cat.no.19 (as Dead Rabbit), listed as whereabouts unknown)
Annette Ratuszniak, Elisabeth Frink; Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93, Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2013, p.49, cat.no.24 (ill.b&w)
In the years following the end of World War II, Dame Elisabeth Frink became preoccupied with the after-effects of such violence and aggression. She embarked on a series of bronzes depicting animals either in their death throes or already dead, reflecting her concern. Several of these victims appear to contort in an apparent display of agony. Dead Cat, dating from the same year as the present work, is one such work. Although never cast in bronze, the lost plaster is known from an image and shows the writhing animal in an expression of twisted defeat. Dead Hen (1957), a cast of which is in the Tate Collection, is another. Dead Leveret (Dead Rabbit) however, by contrast exhibits a certain degree of peace. There is something of a tender poignancy in the way the rabbit's small paws are tethered together and the manner in which the limp body and ears are quietly suspended. These expressionist sculptures from the 1950s were partly informed by French sculptor Germaine Richier and also relate to the still life paintings of Soutine.
