Venetian Boy Catching a Crab by Henrietta Montalba (1840-1929). Source: Hepworth-Dixon 217. [Additional images, including details] Click on the image to enlarge it.
Marion Hepworth-Dixon (1856-1936) describes this as the artist's "last serious essay in ideal composition, seen as it was a year ago in the Central Hall of the Royal Academy," where it was evidently so much admired that she feels it "needs neither comment nor praise in these pages." Nevertheless, she is impelled to add her own praise:
Briefly, what is notable in the work is its directness, its distinctiveness of conception. No over-accentuation, so common in common sculpture, no over-affectation of learning, so ordinary in ordinary sculptors, mars the modelling of the recumbent figure. The muscular structure of the torso and limbs is studied, and withal lovingly studied, but a masculine reticence, a certain rhythmical balance are marked characteristics of the work, and go a long way to make the unity as well as the naturalistic charm of the whole. [216]
Luckily this work is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Musem, where its details can be closely observed and its skill and effect more fully appreciated. At the time of writing, though, it is on loan to the Tate, where it features in the Now You see Us exhibition (it is on a plinth in Room 6: "Victorian Spectacle").
Scan, caption, and commentary by Jacqueline Banerjee, 2009. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Guide to the Now You See Us exhibition at the Tate, 2024. [Exhibition and Catalogue Review]
Hepworth-Dixon, M. "Henrietta Montalba: A Reminiscence." The Art-Journal (new series 1894): 215-217. HathiTrust, from a copy in the Getty Research Institute. Web. 2 August 2024. [Full text in the Victorian Web.]
Created 2 August 2024