- Artist
- Sir Alfred Gilbert 1854–1934
- Medium
- Bronze
- Dimensions
- Object: 349 × 152 × 140 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Bequeathed by Frederick Harrison 1936
- Reference
- N04829
Catalogue entry
N04829 COMEDY AND TRAGEDY: ‘SIC VITA’ c.
1890–2
Inscr. ‘A. Gilbert’ below foot.
Bronze, 13 3/4×6×5 1/2 (35×15×14), on wooden base, 2×3 3/4×3 3/4 (5×9·5×9·5).
Bequeathed by Frederick Harrison 1936.
Coll: Frederick Harrison, died 1926.
Lit: M. H. Spielmann, British Sculpture and Sculptors of To-day, 1901, p.78; Hatton, 1903, pp.11, 12, repr; McAllister, 1929, p.88; Bury, 1952, pp.59, 70.
The topic was suggested by W. S. Gilbert's Comedy and Tragedy, originally written in 1884, produced at the Lyceum and revived at the Haymarket Theatre, of which Frederick Harrison was then the proprietor, in 1890. Hatton quotes the artist's account of his intentions as follows: ‘It represents a boy carrying a mask. He is stung by a bee - a symbol of love. He turns and his face becomes tragic. The symbol is in reality fact. I was stung by that bee, typified by my love for my art, a consciousness of its incompleteness.... I conceived the notion of harking back to the old Greek stage upon which masks were always worn, and I conceived a kind of stage property boy rushing away in great glee with his comedy mask, and on his way being stung by a bee.’
This is a reduced version of the original, a plaster model of which (30 in. high) was exhibited at the R.A., 1892 (2004), and is now in the V. & A. (repr. Cox, 1936, pl.5). Bronzes exist of both the large and small versions.
Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I
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