Henry Poole

Mask of Pan

1926

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Not on display

Artist: Henry Poole 1873–1928
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: Object: 465 × 225 × 210 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1929
Reference: N04439

Display caption

The architectural sculptor Henry Poole was a pupil of Harry Bates and the painter and sculptor G.F.Watts. At the end of his life he began to carve directly in marble, but this 'Mask' was first modelled in clay. It was cast in bronze, and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1926. Next, a marble copy was carved and also exhibited at the Academy, in 1927. Finally for the Tate Gallery a new bronze was cast soon after the sculptor's death.

Poole died suddenly aged fifty-five in 1928. He was a Trustee of the Tate Gallery, and had just been elected a Royal Academician. This 'Mask' is one of two sculptures acquired from his widow.

Gallery label, August 2004

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Catalogue entry

N04439 MASK OF PAN c. 1928

Not inscribed.
Bronze, 14×8×8 1/2 (35·5×20·5×21·5), on a marble plinth.
Purchased from the artist's widow (Lewis Publications ‘A’ Fund) 1929.

This bronze mask was cast from the marble head, ‘Young Pan’, his R.A. Diploma work (exh. R.A., 1928 (1491), and repr. Royal Academy Illustrated, 1928, p.119). There are minor variations in the treatment of lips and hair which are more crisply modelled in the bronze. Another of the six bronze casts was exhibited at the memorial exhibition, Leicester Galleries, January 1929 (11).

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