拍品专文
Thomas Jeckyll and James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) famously designed 'The Peacock Room' for the British shipping magnate Frederick Richards Leyland at 49 Prince's Gate in Kensington, London. The room included a pair of 'Sunflower' andirons designed by Jeckyll produced by Barnard, Bishop and Barnards around 1876, when the project was coming to a close. This 'Sunflower' pattern was prominently featured in the Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A cast- and wrought-iron pavilion listed as 'Sunflower Pavilion' in the exhibition catalogue included a railing composed of these sunflowers designed by Jeckyll and made by Barnard, Bishop and Barnards. The andirons were again exhibited in 1878 at the Paris Exposition Universelle. By the 1880s, the andirons had found their way into notable interiors such as David L. Einstein's library as published in Artistic Houses (1883).
The sunflower was a motif closely tied to the Aesthetic Movement, which drew inspiration from Japanese art such as woodblock prints with stylized compositions of nature and beauty. The subtle movement of the petals and leaves of the perennial flowering plant is memorialized in an otherwise durable and rigid material. Simplified forms expertly crafted exemplifies the central tenets of Aestheticism: beauty in purity. The present lot is the only known example with sunflower heads executed in polished brass while the remaining body is formed from patinated wrought-iron.
The sunflower was a motif closely tied to the Aesthetic Movement, which drew inspiration from Japanese art such as woodblock prints with stylized compositions of nature and beauty. The subtle movement of the petals and leaves of the perennial flowering plant is memorialized in an otherwise durable and rigid material. Simplified forms expertly crafted exemplifies the central tenets of Aestheticism: beauty in purity. The present lot is the only known example with sunflower heads executed in polished brass while the remaining body is formed from patinated wrought-iron.