'Standing Nude (Bather)' Herbert Palliser 1883 – 1963

Circa 1940
Height 31.50 cm [1 ft ]

Width 10.00 cm [0 ft 4 ins]

Depth 8.00 cm [0 ft 3 ins]
Ј3,800.00

GBP - Pound Sterling
Artist's Resale Right applies @ 4%



Stone

Signed Palliser





Herbert Palliser 1883 – 1963

Born in Yorkshire, Palliser embodied the prevailing style

of his era. Originally training as an architect, Palliser

switched to become one of the last students to study

under Thomas Harvard at the Slade School of Art. By

all accounts he was a modest man, however, this did

not stop him fulfilling some heroic projects. Working

as he often did with architects, one can see when

one looks up at London’s forgotten skyline Palliser’s

Pediments carved for Victoria House, built in 1921 – 34

for the Liverpool Friendly Society. Other examples are

the rather apt figures; Security, Prudence, Foresight

and Unity, which adorn the The Moscow Narodny

Bank, and the portico to Vintry House – an Edwardian

gem saved from the wrecker’s ball, now squeezed up

against Thames House – whose central figure, a nude

Bacchante, was modelled on Leopoldine Avico, one

of the three Avico daughters who were ‘something of

an institution’ at the Slade between the Wars. ? The

stone sculpture here may well be the work ‘Bather’

(possibly an Avico daughter also) exhibited in 1940

with the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, of which

Palliser was a member. The statuesque figure could

be well described by a quotation from his obituary (a)

‘Sculptor (who) managed to combine successfully his

own pastoral lyricism with Hellenic formula of static

balance’, most appropriate… ? Palliser taught regularly

at the Royal College of Art and exhibited at the RA

Summer Shows (1921 – 56), the New English Art Club,

the Royal Academy, the Walker Art Gallery, the Leeds

City Art Gallery and at the Royal Glasgow Institute of

the Fine Arts. Other noteworthy commissions include a

Memorial in Calcutta 1924, The Cobra Fountain in New

Delhi 1932 and The Roosevelt Memorial in Westminster

Abbey 1946. In 1943 he was elected a Fellow of of the

Royal Society of British Sculptors.