Edward Onslow Ford - The Singer - Tate Britain Aug 2010 back right
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Onslow_Ford
www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&w...
Presenting the winner of Egypt's Got Talent, 2010 BC.
Seriously, this is a wonderfully detailed figure that needs to be seen from all angles, and so here they are, at least all the ones I managed to photograph in the time available. The girl's headband contains coloured stones, and the harp (which is so big she has to stand on a box to play it) has ornate gilding and real strings. (One reason for putting it in a case, I suppose - to stop kids trying to twang the strings.)
Amazingly, at some early stage in the statue's career it was given a coat of brown varnish, completely obscuring its polychrome decoration. It wasn't until the 1990s that the Tate, through painstaking research, were able to restore the statue to its original glory.
Old photos show the statue on an equally ornate column that raises the girl's face well above the viewer's eye level. In the 21st century she just has to make do with a plastic base.
The Singer was completed in 1889, more than thirty years before Howard Carter's expedition popularised Ancient Egyptian design. Ford was just a bit ahead of the game, I guess. I'm glad he was.
Edward Onslow Ford - The Singer - Tate Britain Aug 2010 back right
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Onslow_Ford
www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&w...
Presenting the winner of Egypt's Got Talent, 2010 BC.
Seriously, this is a wonderfully detailed figure that needs to be seen from all angles, and so here they are, at least all the ones I managed to photograph in the time available. The girl's headband contains coloured stones, and the harp (which is so big she has to stand on a box to play it) has ornate gilding and real strings. (One reason for putting it in a case, I suppose - to stop kids trying to twang the strings.)
Amazingly, at some early stage in the statue's career it was given a coat of brown varnish, completely obscuring its polychrome decoration. It wasn't until the 1990s that the Tate, through painstaking research, were able to restore the statue to its original glory.
Old photos show the statue on an equally ornate column that raises the girl's face well above the viewer's eye level. In the 21st century she just has to make do with a plastic base.
The Singer was completed in 1889, more than thirty years before Howard Carter's expedition popularised Ancient Egyptian design. Ford was just a bit ahead of the game, I guess. I'm glad he was.