
Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
£40,000 - £60,000
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Director
Provenance
The Artist, from whom acquired directly by the father of the present owners, circa 1976
Private Collection, U.K.
Literature
Jill Willder (ed.), Elisabeth Frink Sculpture Catalogue Raisonné, Salisbury, 1984, p.186, cat.no.229, (ill.b&w., another cast)
Annette Ratuszniak (ed.), Elisabeth Frink, Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93, Lund Humphries, London, 2013, p.132, cat.no.FCR258 (ill.b&w., another cast)
The father of the present owners grew up in the same village as Elisabeth Frink, in Great Thurlow, and the two families were and remained great friends. When in 1974, a sculpture was to be commissioned by the then West Suffolk County Council, he suggested Frink. She in turn produced a monumental statue of King Edmund, the original Patron Saint of England and King of the East Angles, which was unveiled in July 1976. The legend of St Edmund, who ruled East Anglia from AD 855 to 869, tells of the brave King who was killed by the Vikings after refusing to denounce his Christianity. Originally intended for Bury St Edmunds town centre the sculpture was ultimately positioned in the cathedral grounds.