Edward William WYON (Christchurch, 1811-London, 1885)-The Feathers, or Love in Ambush.Shape medallion Round in reconstituted marble depicting in high relief three children mischievously engaging in the game of amorous seductions. On the reverse, a seal stamped with the effigy of a Cupid,-mark of authenticity of the artist's creations before their distribution. Rocaille style frame in wood and gilded stucco with decoration in spandrels of shells, volutes, leafy scrolls of acanthus and small flowers in friezes. Mid-1850th century Victorian period. Circa XNUMX.
Stamped on its reverse with a seal bearing the image of a small Cupid appearing to hold a crown, a framed medallion or even contemplate a set cameo in his right hand, this adorable tondo shaped in reconstituted marble is immediately placed under the supervision of Love. Endowed with childish and laughing faces, he becomes rebellious and mischievous.
Sprawled on soft fabrics, a little boy with densely curly hair caresses himself and dares to caress or steal the alluring frankness of feathers pinned in the nightcap of a little girl; at once scrupulous and playful with this provocative gesture, this playful larceny, this one with plump naked forms, sits enthroned crossed feet nodding, in the center of the composition. Head and bust nestled under an enveloping drapery, their playmate observes them with an amused and complacent eye. His withdrawn posture, his pusillanimous attitude are unequivocal: just like in the famous Greco-Roman cameo called Marlborough Cameo (Boston, Museum of Fine Arts) representing The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche –often reproduced by the Wedgwood Factory )-from which it is extracted, it similarly appears in the form of a veiled child Love in ambush ready to set his sights on a naive victim. Placed at his side, the mischievous duo takes on its full meaning: the latter replays in an ingenuous way the no less perennial theme of Seductive Love Innocence.
Adjusted to the aesthetic tastes of Victorian society (predilection for the Rococo style with pleasant subjects and piquant details; pictorial, sculptural or decorative works devoted to the refreshing, very real childish universe or adorned with farandoles of cherubim, ..), this marble painting is therefore well thought out. Especially if we detect another iconographic reference: Emily and Harriet Lamb as children (1792, Brigthton, Museum and Art Gallery), canvas by Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830)). To this eminent artist representative of the current pre-Romantic English painting, Edward William Wyon will resume in 1848 in a titled medallion LThe Two Sisters –probably forming a counterpart to ours - and this, with less inventiveness, the figures of the little girls.
It should be added that the material chosen for the execution of this medallion is related both by its technique and by its color to another medium to which the sculptor-modeler made his contribution: Parian porcelain. His shape tondo.evoks in his artistic career his past of medalist attached to representatives working for the crowned heads of his century ( Benjamin Wyon, 1802-1858;Thomas, Leonard Wyon, 1826-1891), his involvement from the early 1850s in the revival of the Wedgwood Porcelain Factory.
To conclude: combining cheerful composition and judiciously chosen scholarly references, this Medallion exudes a charm similar to that of the feather trinket protruding from its frame: airy, coquettish, exquisite.
Qualities noted during the presentations at the Salons de la Royal Academy works by this artist appreciated by his contemporaries, acclaimed for his monumental achievements (Funerary monument to Barbara Hofland,Richmond Parish Church, 1850 and bas-reliefs for the House of Drapers, 1866 in London, 1866; caryatids for the Fitzwillian Museum, Cambridge, 1874).
In addition to busts (historical:Robets Burn, Walter Scott, Scottish poets and writers; William Shahespeare; contemporaries: the sculptor Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey, 1781-1841, the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel ,1806-1859) and a Saint Michael fighting the Devil(1850, a Priapus and Bacchante to date recorded, Edouard William Wyon was the author of small original subjects made in the form of medallions-The Eagle Slayer (Victoria and Albert Museum) after John Bell (1812-1895), Flora and Zephyr, A Midsummer Night's Dream, La Oberon and Titania's Quarrel, 1840.- or bas-reliefs-Princess ,from an illustration by Princess (The Lady of Shalott), 1847 by Alfred. Tennyson (1809-1892), Titania's Sleep-denoting in this artist of a certain renown his attraction to subjects of a dreamlike nature.
England, Second half of the 19th century, Victorian era, Style Rococo Revival. Circa 1850.
