Walter Marsden (1882-1962) & The New Sculpture Movement
Bellmans are pleased to be offering a selection of sculptures this October by Walter Marsden, which have come directly from his family. He is primarily known as a war memorial artist, whose significant work stands at many key sites in northern counties. Starting life as the son of a blacksmith from Accrington, his talent gained attention whilst following an apprenticeship at a Brick and Tile Company owned by the McAlpine family, who encouraged him to progress to the Manchester Municipal College in 1908 (now the Manchester Metropolitan University). He was recorded as a ‘clay modeller’ prior to his involvement in World War One, when he served as a Lieutenant in the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, witnessing the full horrors at the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, then as a prisoner of war in France. He is also recorded by the Royal Academy in the Artists’ Rifles. He later went on to be awarded a Military Cross and Bar, and was active in the Home Guard during World War Two.
Prior to the war he started to exhibit at the Royal Academy and he continued to do so throughout his career until 1961. One of his early pieces is the Greek female poet Sappho of 1916, lot 574 in our forthcoming sale. Described by Plato has ‘the tenth Muse’, Sappho is an enigmatic figure, thought to be born in 620BCE, known to have lived on Lesbos and whose poetry delved into the world of love between the same sexes. Sappho is symbolic of the romantic notion of the poet as a sensitive and solitary figure. This bronze reflects well the new approach to sculpture at this period.
Significantly, after the war he went on to the Royal College of Art from 1919-1920 where he studied under the influential Édouard Lantéri who was a progressive force in the New Sculpture Movement, connecting him to the sculptor Alfred Gilbert (famous today for the aluminium Eros sculpture, Soho, London, see lot 570) and the work of the influential French artist and émigré Jules Dalou, who importantly introduced a new fresh naturalism to the medium. This became known at the New Sculpture Movement, a style particular to the British school of sculpture evident from 1880 into the early 20th Century.
At this point, Marsden showed the poignant female figure known as ‘La Victime’ at the Royal Academy in 1920. Depicted with hands bound behind her back, her inspiration is associated with depictions of the Rape of the Sabine Women. She was also created within the aftermath of the war, the exposed figure, possibly a mother and wife, a reminder of great loss and sorrow. See lot 575. This figure went on to be shown in the 1938 Palace of Arts Empire Exhibition in Scotland.
The sale also includes numerous other works by Marsden and, also interestingly, one by his wife, Hilda (lot 576). Later in life Marsden taught modelling at Central Saint Martin’s and was awarded a life pension by the late Queen Elizabeth II for his services to sculpture.
