Name: SIR ALFRED GILBERT, M.V.O., R.A. (BRITISH, 1854-1934)
Brand: COMEDY AND TRAGEDY (SIC VITA)
Price: 42000.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

SIR ALFRED GILBERT, M.V.O., R.A. (BRITISH, 1854-1934)
COMEDY AND TRAGEDY (SIC VITA)
bronze, unsigned, with a dark brown patina; on a verde antico marble socle and ebonised wood plinth; the plinth with the remains of a paper label inscribed 'Tragedy an[d] [C]omed[y] / Gilbert'
26³⁄₄ in. (68 cm.) high; 30¹⁄₂ in. (77.5 cm.) high, overall

Almost certainly acquired by Lady Rosamond Christie (1882-1935) for Tapeley Park, Devon,
Thence by descent.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
I. McAllister, Alfred Gilbert, London, 1929, p. 88.
R. Dorment, Alfred Gilbert, New Haven and London, 1985, pp. 131-4.
R. Dorment, Alfred Gilbert, Sculptor and Goldsmith, exh. cat., Royal Academy, London, March- June 1986, pp. 116-8.

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Lot Essay

Begun in February 1891 and inspired by W. S. Gilbert's play of the same name, then in revival at the Lyceum, Alfred Gilbert's Comedy and Tragedy represents the final work in his series of autobiographical bronzes. Using as his metaphor a prop boy stung by a bee as he carries a mask of Comedy, Gilbert's message is one of a sculptor whose professional, financial and domestic difficulties are concealed behind a mask of success and contentment. A polychromed plaster version of the model was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1892 and bronzes casts in three sizes were subsequently produced by the Compagnie des Bronzes, Brussels.