DOI Heft:
Nr. 225 (November 1915)
DOI Artikel:Reddie, Arthur: Albert Toft: sculptor
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43460#0047
Albert Toft, Sculptor
like a scar from wound, in a young artist by his
struggles with adverse circumstances.
Since 1885, in which year Mr. Toft first made
his appearance in the Royal Academy exhibitions,
he has continued, with only two exceptions, to
exhibit annually at Burlington House.
The several reproductions of his works here
given form, of course, only a small selection from
his considerable oeuvre, but they will serve to give
an idea of the various phases of his art. He has
been responsible for many fine and dignified
memorials; and of the thoroughness, the care for
detail, which gives such unity and comprehen-
siveness to his commemorative work, the two
reproductions of the figures symbolising Peace and
Education from the King Edward Memorial at
Birmingham afford interesting evidence. The
Welsh National Memorial, erected at Cardiff to the
memory of the Welshmen who fell
in South Africa 1899-1902, is one
of the best Mr. Toft has executed.
Readers of The Studio will re-
member that reproductions of
details of this were shown in the
number for January 1910. Another
memorial, not so majestic but, to
my thinking, more graceful in
design, is the South African War
Memorial at Cannon Hill Park,
Birmingham; while, among other
commissions of the kind, Mr. Toft
has executed memorials to Queen
Victoria at Leamington, Notting¬
ham, and South Shields, also to
King Edward VII at Leamington,
the East Suffolk War Memorial at
Ipswich, and the Warwickshire
War Memorial injthe Parish Church,
Warwick.
Mr. Toft’s sympathy and close
study of nature have developed in
him great ability in portrait-sculp¬
ture. The robust and finely
modelled iSzr George Frampton
(Royal Academy, 1915) and the
excellently characterised bust of the
Right Hon. Tesse Collings, M.P.
(Royal Academy, 1914), appear
among the illustrations ; and among
other interesting sitters may be
mentioned Mr. Gladstone (an ad¬
mirable bust of whom Mr. Toft
executed at Hawarden Castle),
George Jacob Holyoake, R. B.
Cunninghame-Graham, Mrs. Cyril Maude, Sir
Henry Irving, David Christie Murray, Sir William
Pearce, Prof. Leschetizky, Mark Hambourg, Sir
William Treloar, and Sir Charles Mark Palmer.
Lastly, we come to those works in which the
inward inspiration of the artist has been the sole
and individual motive. Look first at the graceful
Spring (in the Birmingham Art Gallery), with its
youthfulness, its warm life, tender curves, and its
feeling of wonderment before the recurring miracle
of the birth of leaves and flowers, and compare it
with the dispassionate but even more beautifully
modelled Spirit of Contemplation, in which the
body lies inert and subservient as the temple of
the mind. This work, now in the Newcastle Art
Gallery, is one of those by which the artist was
represented at the Franco-British Exhibition in
1908 and at the International Art Exhibition at
BUST OF SIR GEORGE FRAMPTON, R.A. (BRONZE). BY ALBERT TOFT
25
like a scar from wound, in a young artist by his
struggles with adverse circumstances.
Since 1885, in which year Mr. Toft first made
his appearance in the Royal Academy exhibitions,
he has continued, with only two exceptions, to
exhibit annually at Burlington House.
The several reproductions of his works here
given form, of course, only a small selection from
his considerable oeuvre, but they will serve to give
an idea of the various phases of his art. He has
been responsible for many fine and dignified
memorials; and of the thoroughness, the care for
detail, which gives such unity and comprehen-
siveness to his commemorative work, the two
reproductions of the figures symbolising Peace and
Education from the King Edward Memorial at
Birmingham afford interesting evidence. The
Welsh National Memorial, erected at Cardiff to the
memory of the Welshmen who fell
in South Africa 1899-1902, is one
of the best Mr. Toft has executed.
Readers of The Studio will re-
member that reproductions of
details of this were shown in the
number for January 1910. Another
memorial, not so majestic but, to
my thinking, more graceful in
design, is the South African War
Memorial at Cannon Hill Park,
Birmingham; while, among other
commissions of the kind, Mr. Toft
has executed memorials to Queen
Victoria at Leamington, Notting¬
ham, and South Shields, also to
King Edward VII at Leamington,
the East Suffolk War Memorial at
Ipswich, and the Warwickshire
War Memorial injthe Parish Church,
Warwick.
Mr. Toft’s sympathy and close
study of nature have developed in
him great ability in portrait-sculp¬
ture. The robust and finely
modelled iSzr George Frampton
(Royal Academy, 1915) and the
excellently characterised bust of the
Right Hon. Tesse Collings, M.P.
(Royal Academy, 1914), appear
among the illustrations ; and among
other interesting sitters may be
mentioned Mr. Gladstone (an ad¬
mirable bust of whom Mr. Toft
executed at Hawarden Castle),
George Jacob Holyoake, R. B.
Cunninghame-Graham, Mrs. Cyril Maude, Sir
Henry Irving, David Christie Murray, Sir William
Pearce, Prof. Leschetizky, Mark Hambourg, Sir
William Treloar, and Sir Charles Mark Palmer.
Lastly, we come to those works in which the
inward inspiration of the artist has been the sole
and individual motive. Look first at the graceful
Spring (in the Birmingham Art Gallery), with its
youthfulness, its warm life, tender curves, and its
feeling of wonderment before the recurring miracle
of the birth of leaves and flowers, and compare it
with the dispassionate but even more beautifully
modelled Spirit of Contemplation, in which the
body lies inert and subservient as the temple of
the mind. This work, now in the Newcastle Art
Gallery, is one of those by which the artist was
represented at the Franco-British Exhibition in
1908 and at the International Art Exhibition at
BUST OF SIR GEORGE FRAMPTON, R.A. (BRONZE). BY ALBERT TOFT
25