Studio: international art (37.1906)

Alfred Drury, A.R.A.

ill-considered strivings to achieve impossibilities it shows no deficiency of restraint and no tendency
which in their maturity they would have had the towards the extravagance of manner which an artist
discretion to avoid. less soundly trained might have displayed in render-

But Mr. Drury fortunately escaped all these ing a subject so susceptible of exaggeration. The
temptations. Instead of being thrown on his own material he chose for The Triumph of Silenus was
resources before he was sure of himself he was terra-cotta, one which presents some exceptional
privileged to serve an apprenticeship in a studio difficulties in management and needs a particular
where some of the greatest examples of modern type of technical experience. But these difficulties,
sculpture were being brought to completion. Dalou as the success of his work proves, he overcame quite
at that time was occupied with several of the works efficiently, and he mastered then a medium which
on which his reputation most securely rests—with has since served him usefully in the execution of
things like his great group The Triumph of the many important pieces of decorative sculpture.
Republic and the Mirabeau relief—
and his young assistant was able to
take an actual part in the shaping of
these evidences of his master's
genius. That all this implied a great
deal of strenuous labour is obvious
enough, but labour of this kind
accustomed him to the rough side of
his profession and taught him what
to expect if he was to put his own
ambitious conceptions later on into
a shape that would be impressive.
His conspicuous success in recent
years with works on a large scale, and
constructively of an exacting order,
is assuredly due in no small degree
to the thorough experience which
he obtained at this early stage of the
mechanism of a craft which makes
very considerable demands upon
the physical powers of the men
who follow it, as well as upon their
inventive ingenuity.

His first appearance as an exhi-
bitor at the Royal Academy was
made in 1885, when he showed there
a group, The Triumph of Silenus,
which he had executed during his
spare moments at Paris. This
group, which is half life-size, bears
very evidently the stamp of Dalou's
influence, but it is by no means
lacking in the more personal quali-
ties of style and method which have
since been developed so distinctively
in Mr. Drury's maturer productions.
It has a certain richness of treat-
ment which is unusual in the work
of English sculptors, a robustness of
sentiment and an opulence of form

which suggest the youthful exuber bronze electric lamp hv alfred drury

, , , . , , • ,, standards, city square,

ance of the designer, but technically lebds