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Lot Essay
Most likely inspired by his model Angelo Colorossi, seen stretching after a sitting, The Sluggard, or the work's original title An Athlete Awakening from Sleep, was almost certainly conceived as a pendant to An Athlete Wrestling with a Python, 1877. The original full scale work was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1886 and was awarded a medal of honour when it was shown at the Paris Exposition Universelle three years later. Acquired from Leighton's studio sale in 1896 by Henry Tate, the full size bronze is now in the Tate Gallery (inv. N01752) and the original plaster in the Royal Academy of Arts (inv. 03/1765).
The present figure's physicality illustrates the influence of the great sculptors of the Italian Renaissance on the artist, yet Leighton was also able to evoke the spirit of the 'new school' having deftly captured a fleeting moment. Scholar Benedict Read suggests the subject can be seen 'as a symbol of the art of sculpture, liberated by Leighton, flexing itself for renewed activity after a long time in the shackles of convention.'
As was the custom, the popularity of The Sluggard, made it viable for a foundry to acquire the rights to produce the model under licence. The Sluggard was produced in an edition, originally published by Arthur L. Collie in 1890, cast in the Singer Foundry in Frome, Somerset. The foundry inscription to the present bronze therefore identifies it as from this, the earliest, edition. Thereafter the copyright passed from Collie directly to J.W. Singer & Sons sometime in the early decades of the 20th Century - it appears in the Singer trade literature around 1914.
The present figure's physicality illustrates the influence of the great sculptors of the Italian Renaissance on the artist, yet Leighton was also able to evoke the spirit of the 'new school' having deftly captured a fleeting moment. Scholar Benedict Read suggests the subject can be seen 'as a symbol of the art of sculpture, liberated by Leighton, flexing itself for renewed activity after a long time in the shackles of convention.'
As was the custom, the popularity of The Sluggard, made it viable for a foundry to acquire the rights to produce the model under licence. The Sluggard was produced in an edition, originally published by Arthur L. Collie in 1890, cast in the Singer Foundry in Frome, Somerset. The foundry inscription to the present bronze therefore identifies it as from this, the earliest, edition. Thereafter the copyright passed from Collie directly to J.W. Singer & Sons sometime in the early decades of the 20th Century - it appears in the Singer trade literature around 1914.