Lot 302: Charles Sargeant Jagger , Wipers Bronze

incised with title bronze with brown patina on a marble base

height (including base): 47.5cm.; 18¾in.

London, Royal Academy, Summer Exhibition , May 1920 (another cast);
London, The Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, Charles Sargeant Jagger Memorial Exhibition, War and Peace Sculpture , 21 May - 20 June 1935, no.10, illustrated in the catalogue, for sale at 75 gns, touring to Birmingham, Liverpool, Sheffield, Lincoln, Wakefield, Halifax, Dunfermline, Rochdale, Perth, Hull, Doncaster and Stockport;
Toronto, Canadian National Exhibition , 23 August - 7 September 1935, no.392;
Halifax, Bankfield Museum, The Art of the Jagger Family , 26 August 1939 - 23 September 1940, no.17 (another cast), touring to Burton, Darlington, Lincoln, Rotherham, and Sunderland;
London, Imperial War Museum, Charles Sargeant Jagger War and Peace Sculpture Centenary Exhibition 1885-1985 , 1 May - 29 September 1985 (another cast);
Sheffield, Mappin Art Gallery, Charles Sargeant Jagger , 19 October-30 November 1985, no.23 (another cast).

Ann Compton, The Sculpture of Charles Sargeant Jagger, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, Hertfordshire, 2004, no.25, illustrated p.34 (another cast).

Wipers, the title taken from the WWI soldiers? slang for Ypres, is the study for the large-scale figure, Soldier on Defence, on the Hoylake War Memorial in Cheshire, executed between 1919 and 1922.

The final figure presents a more idealised view than Wipers, whose post-combat dishevelment and grim, fixed expression does little to disguise the realities of conflict. A discarded German helmet sits by the figure?s right foot, a further reminder of the purpose of war. Using the pyramidal composition that Jagger was to use in many of his later WWI soldier figures (see lot 301), Wipers is an image of strength, and thus perhaps owes something to the work of Sir Frank Brangwyn. In his studies of dockers and sailors, and in his WWI work, Brangwyn?s powerful figures have a presence that is echoed in Wipers. As with Jagger?s other WWI imagery, such as the Royal Artillery Memorial (see lot 301) and the GWR Memorial at Paddington Station, the artist?s ability to create an image that is both heroic and patriotic without overt tones of jingoism shines forth. Popular amongst collectors, the first cast of this maquette was commissioned by the H.R.H. Prince of Wales in 1921, prior to his commission for his portrait bronze (see lot 305). Four casts were made in 1935 and one further in 1938.