Gilbert Ledward

Monolith

exhibited 1936

© The estate of Gilbert Ledward

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Not on display

Artist: Gilbert Ledward 1888–1960
Medium: Limestone
Dimensions: Object: 1540 x 320 x 320 mm, 400 kg
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1936
Reference: N04840

Display caption

Gilbert Ledward was the son of the sculptor Richard Ledward. He studied at both the Royal College of Art and the Royal Academy Schools and won the first British School of Rome Scholarship in Sculpture in 1913. He served with the Royal Artillery during the First World War and from 1919 on executed many war memorials in towns throughout Britain. The low relief carving on all four sides of this Monolith was inspired by the low relief work of the Italian Renaissance sculptor Agostino di Duccio, particularly his monument to Sigismondo Malatesta in the Cathedral at Rimini.

Gallery label, August 2004

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Catalogue entry

N04840 MONOLITH c. 1936

Not inscribed.
Roman stone, 60 1/2×12 1/4×12 3/4 (153·5×31×32·5), carved in low relief on all four sides.
Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1936.
Exh: R.A., 1936 (1591).
Repr: Royal Academy Illustrated, 1936, p.125.

Carved direct in the block as a result of seeing Agostino di Duccio's monument of Sigismondo Malatesta and Isotta in the Tempio, Rimini, and reading Adrian Stokes's study of this in his Stones of Rimini (letter from the sculptor, 4 January 1956).

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I