Lot 56: Alexander Munro British, 1825-1871 , Fountain Nymph plaster

plaster

measurements note 90cm., 35½in.

Pre-Raphaelite Sculpture: Nature and Imagination in British Sculpture 1848-1914, ex. cat. Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, 1991, pp. 111-130, no. 37

M. P. W. Boulton;
The Robb family (into which a member of the Boulton family married);
Sold by Christies in the Great Tew Park Sale, 27th -29th May 1987, lot 911

The Scottish sculptor Alexander Munro was born in Inverness and his youthful talent was encouraged by the headmaster of his school. His first patron was Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland who brought him to the attention of the architect Charles Barry. Barry in turn introduced him to John Thomas and Munro travelled to London to work with Thomas on the new Houses of Parliament. He subsequently took up studies at the Royal Academy schools where he became friends with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Everett Millais. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had a lasting impression on his work.

Munro's Fountain Nymph was modelled for the monument to Herbert Ingram in Boston, Lincolnshire. It was cast in bronze by the Elkington foundry and added to the monument a year after it was unveiled. Ingram represented Boston in Parliament for several years and helped to pay for the water-works installed in the town. He was also the editor of The Illustrated London News. This fragmentary plaster cast appears to be part of the model for the bronze figure and it was formerly in the collection of M. P. W. Boulton. It is mentioned in a letter from the sculptor's wife to his sister, Annie, in 1869: "Alick thinks you did quite right to sell the fragment. He would like Mr Boulton to know that he himself thinks it the best thing in the room... He is wondering if Mr Boulton would prefer the entire figure for 30 gns". This entire figure (in plaster) is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. It proves that the fragmented arms of the present plaster would have held an urn.

RELATED LITERATURE
Bilbey & Trusted, p. 343