The New Sculpture refers to a movement in late 19th-century British

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

.

The term "New Sculpture" was coined by the first historian of the movement, the critic Edmund Gosse

Edmund Gosse

Sir Edmund William Gosse CB was an English poet, author and critic; the son of Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Bowes.-Early life:...

, who wrote a four-part series for the Art Journal in 1894. After a protracted period of a stylized neoclassicism

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...

, sculpture in the last quarter of the century began to explore a greater degree of naturalism

Naturalism (art)

Naturalism in art refers to the depiction of realistic objects in a natural setting. The Realism movement of the 19th century advocated naturalism in reaction to the stylized and idealized depictions of subjects in Romanticism, but many painters have adopted a similar approach over the centuries...

 and wider range of subject matter. The French sculptor Jules Dalou

Jules Dalou

Aimé-Jules Dalou was a French sculptor, recognized as one of the most brilliant virtuosos of nineteenth-century France, admired for his perceptiveness, execution, and unpretentious realism.-Life:...

, in his eight-year English exile after the Paris Commune

Paris Commune

The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...

 events in 1871, taught modelling at the South Kensington School of Art, and then at the Lambeth School of Art

Lambeth School of Art

Lambeth School of Art was founded in 1854 by William Gregory as a night school associated with the St. Mary the Less Church in London.-History:...

. He profoundly influenced a new generation of British sculptors, helping to usher in a new approach to the medium.

The catalyst for this development is usually understood to be the exhibition, in 1877, of Frederic Leighton's Athlete Wrestling with a Python. This was Leighton's first major sculpture, and he intended it as a challenge to the prevailing styles of sculpture. It reflected his interest in a more dynamic and vibrant representation of the human body and a shift from easily legible and didactic subject matter. Many sculptors looked to the Athlete and created responses to it in the following years.

The New Sculpture represents an alternate formulation of a new direction for sculpture at the end of the nineteenth century. Whereas the major French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 alternative to mid-19th-century sculpture, Auguste Rodin

Auguste Rodin

François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...

, increasingly left the accurate representation of the human body behind, the New Sculptors by and large chose to grapple with issues arising from the naturalistic representation of the body and the detailed rendering of its surface variations. The New Sculpture does not represent one singular style, but rather a range of options developed to make sculpture more vital and life-like.

A small exhibition dedicated to the New Sculpture was held at Tate Britain

Tate Britain

Tate Britain is an art gallery situated on Millbank in London, and part of the Tate gallery network in Britain, with Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is the oldest gallery in the network, opening in 1897. It houses a substantial collection of the works of J. M. W. Turner.-History:It...

 during the summer and early autumn of 2010. Works on display included Pandora by Harry Bates

Harry Bates (sculptor)

Harry Bates A.R.A. , English sculptor, was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Bates was elected to the Royal Academy in 1892 as A.R.A. and was an active, if intermittent, member of the Art Workers Guild. He was a central figure in the British movement known as the New Sculpture...

, Mother Teaching Child and three small bronzes by Alfred Gilbert

Alfred Gilbert

Sir Alfred Gilbert was an English sculptor and goldsmith who enthusiastically experimented with metallurgical innovations...

, The Singer, Applause and Folly by Edward Onslow Ford

Edward Onslow Ford

Edward Onslow Ford , English sculptor, was born in London. He received some education as a painter in Antwerp and as a sculptor in Munich under Professor Wagmuller, but was mainly self-taught....

, Lycidas by James Harvard Thomas, The Sluggard by Frederic Leighton and The Nymph of Loch Awe by F.W. Pomeroy.

Sculptors

Major figures associated with the New Sculpture include:

• C.J. Allen
  C.J. Allen
  Charles John Allen was a British sculptor, a figure in the New Sculpture movement.Born in Greenford, Middlesex, Allen studied at the Lambeth School of Art and then apprenticed with the London architectural sculpture firm Farmer & Brindley in 1879 and became the assistant to Hamo Thornycroft for...
  
  
• Harry Bates
  Harry Bates (sculptor)
  Harry Bates A.R.A. , English sculptor, was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. Bates was elected to the Royal Academy in 1892 as A.R.A. and was an active, if intermittent, member of the Art Workers Guild. He was a central figure in the British movement known as the New Sculpture...
  
  
• Gilbert Bayes
  Gilbert Bayes
  Gilbert William Bayes RA was a British sculptor and medalist.-Career:Born in London into a family of artists, Bayes' lengthy and illustrious career began as a student under Sir George Frampton and Harry Bates, and so became associated with the British New Sculpture movement and its focus on...
  
  
• Jules Dalou
  Jules Dalou
  Aimé-Jules Dalou was a French sculptor, recognized as one of the most brilliant virtuosos of nineteenth-century France, admired for his perceptiveness, execution, and unpretentious realism.-Life:...
  
  
• Alfred Drury
  Alfred Drury
  Alfred Briscoe Drury, was an English architectural sculptor and figure in the New Sculpture movement.Born in London, Drury studied under Edouard Lanteri and Jules Dalou, with whom he worked between 1881 and 1885, and then became assistant to Joseph Boehm.Drury is best represented at the Victoria...
  
  
• Edward Onslow Ford
  Edward Onslow Ford
  Edward Onslow Ford , English sculptor, was born in London. He received some education as a painter in Antwerp and as a sculptor in Munich under Professor Wagmuller, but was mainly self-taught....
  
  
• George Frampton
  George Frampton
  Sir George James Frampton, RA was a notable British sculptor and leading member of the New Sculpture movement.-Early life and career:...
  
  
• Alfred Gilbert
  Alfred Gilbert
  Sir Alfred Gilbert was an English sculptor and goldsmith who enthusiastically experimented with metallurgical innovations...
  
  
• Goscombe John
  Goscombe John
  Sir William Goscombe John R.A. , was a Welsh sculptor.-Biography:He was born in Canton, Cardiff and as a youth assisted his father, Thomas John, a wood carver, in the restoration of Cardiff Castle...
  
  
• Andrea Carlo Lucchesi
  Andrea Carlo Lucchesi
  Andrea Carlo Lucchesi was an Anglo-Italian sculptor, born and trained in London, who had a career in the United Kingdom as an exponent of the naturalistic and symbolist "New Sculpture"...
  
  
• Henry Albert Pegram
  Henry Albert Pegram
  Henry Alfred Pegram was a British sculptor, an exponent of the New Sculpture movement.- Life :Pegram was born in London and received his first artistic education at the West London School of Art. Already in 1881 and in 1883 he won prizes at the National Art Competitions...
  
  
• F.W. Pomeroy
• Hamo Thornycroft
  Hamo Thornycroft
  Sir William "Hamo" Thornycroft, RA was a British sculptor, responsible for several London landmarks.-Biography:...