Comedy and Tragedy: 'Sic Vita'

model 1891-1892, cast probably 1902/1905

Sir Alfred Gilbert

Artist, British, 1854 - 1934

Media Options

Skip thumbnail navigation
Back to thumbnail navigation
This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Pepita Milmore Memorial Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall (with marble base): 34.6 x 15.6 x 13.7 cm (13 5/8 x 6 1/8 x 5 3/8 in.)
    overall (marble base): 5.1 x 15.3 cm (2 x 6 in.)
    overall (without attached marble base): 34.5 x 15.6 x 13.7 cm (13 9/16 x 6 1/8 x 5 3/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1984.67.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly John Postle Heseltine [1843-1929], London, at least in 1903.[1] (Sotheby's, Belgravia, 27 November 1974, no. 23); (Daniel Katz, London);[2] purchased 1 November 1984 by NGA.
[1] The NGA example appears very similar to the one illustrated by Joseph Hatton ("The Life and Work of Albert Gilbert", The Easter Art Annual, London, 1903: 12), and owned at the time by Heseltine. [2] Information from Daniel Katz, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2009

  • The Darker Side of Light: Arts of Privacy, 1850-1900, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, 2009-2010, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 2 of chapter "Sculpture and Privacy."

Bibliography

1986

  • National Gallery of Art. 1985 Annual Report. Washington, D.C., 1986: repro. 14, 48.

  • Alfred Gilbert, Sculptor and Goldsmith (exhibition brochure), Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1986.

  • Dorment, Richard, ed. Alfred Gilbert, Sculptor and Goldsmith. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1986: 116-118, no. 23, color repro.

  • Dorment, Richard. "The Creator of Eros." Illustrated London News (April 1986): 57-58, repro. 58.

1992

  • Penny, Nicholas. French and Other European Sculpture. Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum. 1540 to the Present Day. Oxford, 1992: 2: 83.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 102, repro.

2000

  • Butler, Ruth, and Suzanne Glover Lindsay, with Alison Luchs, Douglas Lewis, Cynthia J. Mills, and Jeffrey Weidman. European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 266-271, color repro.

Inscriptions

on self-base below figure's right foot, applied as cachet in relief, integrally cast monogram in a cipher: AG

Wikidata ID

Q63861108

You may be interested in

Loading Results