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Public Statues and Sculpture Association

Awakening

Photo: George Rex; CC BY-SA

Sculptor: Gilbert Ledward (1888-1960)

Founder: The Morris Art Bronze Foundry

Materials: Statue in bronze; pedestal in cement

Dimensions: Statue h. 1.83m.

Signed and dated: G. Ledward
1915

Inscription: Front of pedestal (indistinct): AWAKENING/GILBERT/LEDWARD/1888–1960. Bronze plaque above: "AWAKENING" –GILBERT LEDWARD O.B.E. R.A./1888–1960

Listed: Grade II (1468320)18.8.2020

Awakening

When Awakening was exhibited in 1960 at Battersea Park, Ledward described it in the accompanying catalogue as follows:

This bronze is an early work…It is a deliberate type of study from life which one rarely has the time or the opportunity to carry out more than once in a life-time and I worked on it, over a long period, from a model who in my opinion had a particularly sculpturesque figure. (London County Council, Sculpture in the Open Air (exh. cat.; Battersea Park, London, May to September 1960).

For a full description of this statue and its history, see Terry Cavanagh, Public Sculpture of Kensington and Chelsea with Westminster South-West, Watford, 2023, pp. 33-34.

 

Location: Ropers Gardens, Chelsea Embankment, SW3