Lot 205: CHARLES SARGEANT JAGGER, M.C. 1885-1934 WIPERS

MATERIAL/MEDIUM patinated plaster PROVENANCE The British School at Rome Sold, Sotheby's London, November 25th, 1987, lot 91, illustrated Peter Nahum, Ltd., London Acquired from the above, 1987 LITERATURE A. Compton (ed.), Charles Sargeant Jagger, War and Peace Sculpture, exhib. cat., Imperial War Museum, London, 1985, pp. 16-31, 63-67 CATALOGUE NOTE Charles Sargeant Jagger M.C. served as a private in the Artists Rifles and as a Lieutenant in the Worcester Regiment. He was wounded in the trenches, and received the Military Cross. After the war, Jagger was given a number of important commisions, including his best known, the Royal Artillary Memorial at Hyde Park Corner. The present work is a maquette for the West Kirby Memorial (1919-1922) which was commisioned for Grange Hill, above Hoylake and West Kirby. The memorial consists of a granite obelisk against which stand life-size bronzes of a female figure, Humanity and the bronze version of the soldier seen here, originally referred to as Solider on Defence. With the production of a later bronze edition, the title Wipers was added- British military slang for the Belgian town Ypres. Wipers is a fine example of Jagger's realism, but also of his ability to humanize the face of war. His Memorial works aimed, according to his writings, to show 'the Tommy as I knew him in the trenches'.

<p>height 18in. (45.7cm)</p>