Painted plaster relief, 96.5 by 56 cm (38 by 22 ins)

Goscombe John was the pre-eminent Welsh sculptor of the turn of the twentieth century. He was a Gold medallist at the Royal Academy schools in the 1880s and in the early 1890s took a studio in Paris where he studied under Rodin. He was a prolific creator of public sculpture, with his work including two great First World War memorial groups The Response 1914 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and the Port Sunlight Memorial. These are widely considered to be amongst the finest large scale sculptural groups on any British monument. The present work probably dates from the mid to late 1890s. It can be compared to sculptures like the narrative copper panel The Glamour of the Rose which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1896. At this date John was under the influence of the New Sculpture movement, exemplified by the Romantically expressive work of artists like Sir Alfred Gilbert. He was a fine modeler in a plaster and would regularly paint these reliefs to imitate bronze. Several similar works in this medium are amongst his early exhibits at the Royal Academy.