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