Lot 301: Charles Sargeant Jagger , Artillery Captain Bronze, Wood

signed bronze with a dark brown patina, on a wooden base

height (excluding base): 47cm.; 18½in.

London, The Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, Charles Sargeant Jagger Memorial Exhibition , War and Peace Sculpture , 21 May - 20 June 1935 no.36, illustrated in the catalogue, for sale at 75 gns, and touring to Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Lincoln, Wakefield, Halifax, Dunfermline, Rochdale, Perth, Hull, Doncaster, and Stockport;
London, Imperial War Museum, Charles Sargeant Jagger War and Peace Sculpture Centenary Exhibition 1885-1985 , 1 May - 29 September;
Sheffield, Mappin Art Gallery, Charles Sargeant Jagger, 19 October 1985 - 30 November 1986, no.34.

Ann Compton, The Sculpture of Charles Sargeant Jagger, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, Hertfordshire, 2004, no.44, p.117.

Conceived in 1921-25 and cast in an edition of two in 1935.
Jagger's Royal Artillery Memorial is perhaps one of the most recognisable pieces of monumental sculpture in Britain, and the combination of elements that the artist and his architect collaborator, Lionel Pearson, bring together make for a work that is at once poignant and heroic, dynamic and timeless.

First invited to submit a proposal by the RAWCF (Royal Artillery War Commemaration Fund) in 1921, the basic concept of the design was clearly well established in Jagger's mind very early on, as a photograph of the now destroyed first model shows. The large and relatively unadorned bulk of the monument enlivened by bronze relief panels and single bronze figures differs primarily from the finished work in the orientation of the carved 9.2"howitzer that sits atop the model. By treating the actual machinery of war in a way that was very different from the usual presentation in memorials, Jagger was already marking out this piece as something new, and the concept of not sanitising the imagery of the piece extended to the sculpture and the relief panels. The four figures, placed centrally on each side of the monument are presented with stark realism, and whilst they eschew the active drama of Wipers, each has an air of authenticity. The Artillery Captain, along with The Driver and The Shell Carrier, all look practical and ready, worn but not bowed by their service. The fourth figure, Recumbent Artilleryman, is a relatively rare appearance in British War memorials, and Ann Compton has suggested that the anonymous figure, covered by his greatcoat and with his helmet placed on his chest, acquires, like the concept of the Unknown Soldier, a quality that allows him to be a symbol for all those who had died. This was recognised as crucial by contemporaries, and as General Phipps-Hornby, stated at a meeting of the Executive Committee on 12υth November 1924, it was a 'memorial to the dead and not the living' (Executive Committee minutes RA 133 part 4, courtesy of the Royal Artillery Historical Trust).

The Artillery Captain is a noble figure, his contemplative air and unyielding stance combining the experience he has witnessed with hope for the future and in keeping with his fellows, both on the Royal Artillery Memorial and on other sculptures such as the Memorial to Employees of S & J Watts & Co. and the GWR Memorial at Paddington Station, Jagger manages to make him at once realistic and stylised. The detail of the equipment is superb, the network of straps and webbing working with the lines of the folded greatcoat to give a pyramidal dynamism to the composition, solid yet alive.