The Genius of Painting
Created by (Edward) Alfred Briscoe Drury
Date: 1886
Usually date of exhibition rather than production
Object class: sculpture
Object type: statuette
Material: processed and vegetal - terracotta
Technique: modelled
Description: The terracotta statuette is an allegorical representation of Painting, depicted as a female figure in a flowing robe revealing her left breast. Bare-footed, she stands on stylised clouds which overflow a simple socle. She holds in her left hand a panel showing the head of Rubens; her right is poised as if to hold a brush or pen (perhaps missing). A putto with an abundant garland of flowers hovers against her left leg holding in his right hand a long feather or quill, which he may be proffering to her. The head of Rubens is taken from the artist's painted self-portrait in the Royal Collection at Windsor.
Inscriptions
A. DRURY 1886
Location: base
Notes: In 1888 Drury exhibited 'The Genius of Sculpture', presumably a related statuette, at the Royal Academy of Arts (cat. no. 2056)
Makers, Owners and Exhibitors
Owned by Victoria and Albert Museum
1991
Museum number A.4-1991. See http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O40992/statuette-the-genius-of-painting/
Citing this record
'The Genius of Painting', Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011 [http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/object.php?id=ann_1283199505, accessed 17 Jan 2021]
