Frederick William Pomeroy (1856-1924)
Lot 2 PROPERTY OF AN ENGLISH FAMILY TRUST

Frederick William Pomeroy (1856-1924)

Perseus with the head of Medusa

Closed11 December 2014

Price Realised

GBP 20,000

More Information

How to sell

Frederick William Pomeroy (1856-1924)
Perseus with the head of Medusa
signed and dated 'F.W. POMEROY / SC. 1898 / N° 4'
bronze, mid-brown patina
19 ½ in. (49.5 cm.) high

Acquired before 1930, and by descent.

Specialist note

The hero Perseus holds aloft the head of the Gorgon Medusa, himself turning away to avoid being turned to stone by the gaze of the Gorgon.
Inspired by Cellini’s bronze of the same subject, Pomeroy’s imagining of Perseus is also indebted to Mercié’s David Vainqueur, exhibited at the Salon of 1872, which Pomeroy must have seen when he was studying in Paris.
Pomeroy exhibited a full-size plaster version of this subject at the Royal Academy in 1898 and a full-size bronze is in the collection of the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. He subsequently produced a series of bronze reductions including the present example which is numbered ‘4’.
Another cast of this size, originally in the Handley-Read collection, is in the collection of the V & A Museum, London (A.9-1972).