Lot 305: Charles Sargeant Jagger , H.R.H. Prince of Wales Bronze, Wood

signed bronze with light brown patina, on a wooden base

height (excluding base): 62cm.; 24½in.

London, Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition , 1923, no.1515;
London, Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition , 1935, no.1591;
London, The Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, Charles Sargeant Jagger Memorial Exhibition , War and Peace Sculpture , May 21st-June 20th 1935, no.2, illustrated p.3, for sale at 200 gns, touring to Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Lincoln, Wakefield, Halifax, Dunfermline, Rochdale, Perth, Hull, Doncaster and Stockport;
Toronto, Canadian National Exhibition , 23rd August-7th September, 1935, no.391;
Johannesburg, Art Gallery Johannesburg 1936-7, The Art of the Jagger Family tour 1939-1940, no.1;
London, Imperial War Museum, Charles Sargeant Jagger War and Peace Sculpture Centenary Exhibition 1885-1985 , 1st May-29th September, 1985;
Sheffield, Mappin Art Gallery, 19th October-30th November, 1985, no.37.

Ann Compton,The Sculpture of Charles Sargeant Jagger, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, Hertfordshire, 2004, no.53, illustrated p.120.

Conceived 1921-22.
Commissioned directly from Jagger by Lord Esher, probably in 1921, the number of sittings granted by the Prince is unknown (at least one took place in Lady Feodora Gleichen's studio in St.James's Palace), but the debonair informality of the piece is immediately striking and suggests that Jagger quickly managed to successfully capture the character of the sitter. Elements of the costume were based on a photograph of the Prince dressed for playing squash in The Prince of Wales Book: A Pictorial Record of the Voyage of HMS Renown 1919-20. The unusual golden patination of the sculpture was apparently a special request for Jagger to match the colour to a piece of pottery belonging to 'Sassoon'. The original cast of this piece remains in the Royal Collection, and this example belongs to the group of five bronzes cast in 1935.