Bronze on marble base
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Chantrey Bequest
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-alfred-gilbert-208" aria-label="More by Sir Alfred Gilbert" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Alfred Gilbert</a>
Model Eros on Shaftesbury Memorial Piccadilly Circus
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1925
actions: postures and motions
adults
architecture
arm / arms raised
birth to death
charity
classical myths: gods and heroes
Eros / Cupid
flying
health and welfare
male
man
memorial
monuments
nudes
people
religion and belief
society
statue
<p>This is a model for the well-known statue ‘Eros’ (or ‘Anteros’) which stands in the centre of Piccadilly Circus, London. It crowns the memorial fountain to the Victorian social reformer, Lord Shaftesbury. The sculptor wrote of ‘blindfolded Love sending forth indiscriminately, yet with purpose, his missile of kindness, always with the swiftness the bird has from its wings’. The monument was unveiled in 1893 and was the first London statue to be cast in aluminium.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2020</em></p>
sculpture bronze marble
5 May 2003 – 13 April 2004
2004-04-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2003-05-05
London: Modern City
Collection based display
17 May 2004 – 8 September 2004
2004-09-08
17 May 2004
2004-05-17
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2004-05-17
The Boy
Collection based display
1 July 2006 – 30 June 2009
2009-06-30
30 October 2006 – 30 June 2009
2009-06-30
2006-10-30
Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK)
http://www.vam.ac.uk
2006-07-01
Victoria & Albert Museum
Loan-out
11 September 2014 – 25 May 2015
2015-05-25
25 February 2015 – 25 May 2015
2015-05-25
2015-02-25
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-09-11
Sculpture Victorious: Art in an Age of Invention, 1837-1901
Exhibition
2 April 2015 – 25 September 2022
2022-09-25
28 March 2015
2015-03-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2015-04-02
Gallery 8
Collection based display
8 May 2023 – 5 May 2025
2025-05-05
31 October 2022
2022-10-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-05-08
Gallery 6
Collection based display
Model for ‘Eros’ on the Shaftesbury Memorial, Piccadilly Circus
object: 730 × 278 × 670 mm, 31 kg
Presented by the Trustees of the <a href="/search?gid=999999977" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Chantrey Bequest</a> 1925
<div class="text">
<p>This is a model for the well-known statue ‘Eros’ (or ‘Anteros’) which stands in the centre of Piccadilly Circus, London. It crowns the memorial fountain to the Victorian social reformer, Lord Shaftesbury. The sculptor wrote of ‘blindfolded Love sending forth indiscriminately, yet with purpose, his missile of kindness, always with the swiftness the bird has from its wings’. The monument was unveiled in 1893 and was the first London statue to be cast in aluminium.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-09-17T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04176</b> MODEL FOR EROS ON THE SHAFTESBURY MEMORIAL, PICCADILLY CIRCUS <i>.</i> 1890
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Bronze, 24×10 1/2×26 3/4 (61×26×68), on green marble base, 4 1/2×9×9 (11×23×23).
<br/>Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1925.
<br/><i>Lit:</i>
Hatton, 1903, pp.1–32; Cox, 1936, p.19; Bury, 1952, pp.11, 38, 44, 45, 97.</p>
<p>The commission for the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain was first offered to Boehm, who declined it and recommended Gilbert. Work was begun soon after 1887 and the monument was unveiled in 1893. The expense involved led to the artist's financial ruin and his eventual departure to Bruges. A <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/plaster-of-paris" title="Glossary definition for 'Plaster of Paris'"><span>plaster</span></a> model for the figure of Eros was found smashed in his studio. This was repaired by Herbert Hampton, <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cast" title="Glossary definition for 'Cast'"><span>cast</span></a> in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/metal" title="Glossary definition for 'Metal'"><span>bronze</span></a> and acquired through the Chantrey Bequest (see letter to Gilbert from Sir George Clausen, Bury, 1952, p.97). A replica is at Aldenham School, Hertfordshire. McAllister states (1929, p.168) that the model for this figure was Colarossi, studio boy and valet to Gilbert, and nephew of the Colarossi who established a school of art in Paris. The artist refers to the figure as follows: ‘As to the figure surmounting the whole, if I must confess to a meaning or a <i>raison d'être</i> for its being there, I confess to have been actuated in its design by a desire to symbolize the work of Lord Shaftesbury; the blindfolded Love sending forth indiscriminately, yet with purpose, his missile of kindness, always with the swiftness the bird has from its wings, never ceasing to breathe or reflect critically, but ever soaring onwards, regardless of its own perils and dangers’ (Hatton, 1903, p.16.). A model for the whole fountain is at Perth (repr. Cox, 1936, pl.9, and Bury, 1952, pl.10).</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-05T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults architecture arm / arms raised birth to death charity classical myths: gods and heroes Eros / Cupid flying health and welfare male man memorial monuments nudes people religion and belief society statue