Author: Stephanie Brown
Hardback - 60 pages
Illustrated 9 full colour plates and 25 black and white images.
This book is the first of a series that consider significant aspects of Watts art.
G F Watts’ colossal Physical Energy is his most ambitious sculpture, known through the original plaster model at Watts Gallery, Compton and three bronze casts in Cape Town, London and Harare. Stephanie Brown examines the less familiar origins of this iconic work in Watts’ equestrian bronze Hugh Lupus and explores how Physical Energy relates to its three very different locations. The ways in which site influences the meaning of the sculpture is explored in relation to physical features, orientation and presentation and the effects of ideological and cultural change. The continuing interest in Physical Energy, a design originally conceived in 1870, is traced to the present day through its ongoing reproduction in statuettes and its emblematic value as a logo or trademark.
