Sir Thomas Brock (British, 1847-1922): A patinated bronze figure of the 'Snake Charmer' The Orientalist semi-clad figure wearing a tasselled turban seated on a rustic tree stump, holding a pipe in his left hand, his upheld right hand holding a snake entwined staff, his right foot resting upon a basket, on naturalistic oval integral plinth base, signed and dated within the cast T. BROCK. S R. LONDON 1875, the opposing side with COX &. SONS FOUNDERS mark, 105.5cm high, 36cm wide, 50cm deep Footnotes: Thomas Brock (1847-1922) was a sculptor and medallist and served as the founding president of the Society of British Sculptors. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1883 and became a Royal Academician in 1891. In the same year, his design for the profile of Queen Victoria (1819-1901) was adopted for British coinage. Brock's practice focused primarily on monumental public sculpture, and many of his works remain in situ in Britain and abroad. He is perhaps best remembered for the Queen Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace, a commission awarded following the Queen's death in 1901. Throughout his career, Brock exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, including The 'Titanic' Memorial for the Belfast Group in 1916 (ref. no. 1781). Snake Charmer ranks among Brock's earliest ideal subject sculptures and reflects aspects of his academic training under John Henry Foley (1818-1874), with whom he studied from 1866 for at least eight years. The work was exhibited in 1876 at the Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia by the foundry Cox & Sons as a demonstration of accomplished bronze casting. Departing from Brock's earlier neo-classical idiom, Snake Charmer reveals the influence of French sculpture, particularly Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's The Neapolitan Fisherman (1827-1875). This influence is evident in the figure's Neapolitan costume, fluid pose, and refined treatment of character. The friendship between Brock and Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) drew him into the New Sculpture movement, a late nineteenth-century current that favoured naturalistic modelling, expressive subject matter, and a broader public engagement with sculpture. Artists of the movement revitalised British sculpture by incorporating elements derived from Renaissance and Baroque traditions. In its intimate scale and idealised form, Snake Charmer has been identified as one of the earliest bronze statuettes of the New Sculpture movement and is therefore considered to predate comparable works by William Hamo Thornycroft (1850-1925), one of the movement's principal exponents. The foundry that produced the present lot, Cox & Sons operating through the Thames Ditton Foundry, were a prominent London firm operating from 1838-1881 that produced ecclesiastical furniture and Gothic metalwork, working notably with Bruce Talbert. Its bronze foundry was founded in 1874 before becoming Drew & Company in 1880. The foundry's association with James Moore, formerly from Elkington & Co, gave Thomas Thornycroft faith in the foundry a year after its opening to cast his major equestrian statue, that of Lord Mayo for Calcutta. Brock is known to again have used the foundry for his Robert Raikes sculpture in 1880, that is situated in Victoria Embankment Gardens. Provenance Private collection, Canada Private collection, UK Exhibitions Eighteenth Exhibition of Works of Modern Artists, The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 1879. A statuette of the Snake Charmer was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1877, ref. no. 1459. Centennial International Exhibition in Philadelphia, by foundry Cox & Sons in 1876. Literature John Sankey (ed.), Thomas Brock: Forgotten Sculptor of the Victoria Memorial (publisher unidentified, 2012) - Memoir identified as written by Brock's son, Frederick, in 1920 and edited with extensive notes and a catalogue of Brock's works by Sankey. John Sankey, 'Thomas Brock and the Critics: An Examination of Brock's Place in the New Sculpture Movement', vol I. PhD Thesis, Leeds University, 2002, pp. 10, 79, 80 (shown in volume II, plate 114). The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 1861-1989. volume 1, A-D. A Dictionary of Exhibitors at the Annual Exhibitions of the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, The Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, 1861-1989 (Glasgow: The Woodend Press, 1990). Algernon Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts; a Complete Dictionary of Contributors and their Work from its Foundation in 1769 to 1904 (New York: B. Franklin, 1970), p.290. Reprint of the 1905-06 ed. Original 8 volumes republished in 4 volumes. 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