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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/henry-c-fehr-1085" aria-label="More by Henry C Fehr" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Henry C Fehr</a>
Rescue Andromeda
Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1894
actions: expressive
adults
Andromeda
animals: fantastic
attacking
body
Cetus
classical myths: creatures
classical myths: gods and heroes
female
Gorgon / Medusa
head / face
male
man
nudes
objects
people
Perseus
religion and belief
sea monster
sword
weapons
woman
<p>This sculpture illustrates the moment when, according to Greek legend, the hero Perseus (the son of Zeus and Danae) saves the beautiful woman Andromeda from being devoured by a sea monster which is plunging across the sea towards her. The Roman poet Ovid describes how Perseus continually strikes down blows until the creature belches out water mixed with purple blood. Fehr presents Perseus, wearing his distinctive headdress made of feathers and winged sandals, triumphantly holding a dagger in his right hand and the severed head of Medusa in his left. The head of the Gorgon, Medusa, had the power to turn anyone or anything into stone the instant they looked directly at it. Perseus stands on the wounded creature, whose wings blind Andromeda to the arrival of her rescuer. She is positioned awkwardly, the chains on her ankles preventing her escape.</p>
sculpture bronze
The Rescue of Andromeda
object: 2743 × 2591 × 2184 mm
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> 1894
<div class="Normal__Text">This <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a> illustrates the moment when, according to Greek legend, the hero Perseus (the son of Zeus and Danae) saves the beautiful woman Andromeda from being devoured by a sea monster which is plunging across the sea towards her. The Roman poet Ovid describes how Perseus continually strikes down blows until the creature belches out water mixed with purple blood. Fehr presents Perseus, wearing his distinctive headdress made of feathers and winged sandals, triumphantly holding a dagger in his right hand and the severed head of Medusa in his left. The head of the Gorgon, Medusa, had the power to turn anyone or anything into stone the instant they looked directly at it. Perseus stands on the wounded creature, whose wings blind Andromeda to the arrival of her rescuer. She is positioned awkwardly, the chains on her ankles preventing her escape.
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<br/>This story of rescue and romance has been a popular subject for artists for centuries and in 1891, two years before this sculpture, it had already been chosen by Lord Leighton (1830-96) for his <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a> picture. Fehr was a pupil at the Royal Academy Schools when Leighton became President, and would have been aware of his dramatic <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/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> of Andromeda chained to a rock, the fiery breath of the monster rising upwards towards Perseus, who is bathed in golden light above. The scale and treatment of Fehr’s sculpture also relates it directly to the <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> by Benvenuto Cellini’s (1500-70) <i>Perseus with the Head of Medusa </i>in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence. At the Royal Academy Fehr met a close friend of Leighton, Thomas Brock (1847-1922), and in 1893 he began working as an assistant in his studio. In the same year the <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> version of Fehr’s sculpture was exhibited at the Royal Academy. The critics did not give it much attention, preferring instead to eulogise the French painter Gérôme’s (1824-1904) statue <i>Bellona </i>which was also exhibited that year. However it is likely that it was with the encouragement of Lord Leighton that Fehr was able to <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> the sculpture in bronze, and in 1894 <i>The Rescue of Andromeda </i>was bought under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest. 
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<br/>Fehr was friends at the Academy with many sculptors associated with what Edmund Gosse described in 1894 to be the ‘<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/new-sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'New Sculpture'"><span>New Sculpture</span></a>’. Attempting to revive British sculpture from its bland <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/neoclassicism" title="Glossary definition for 'Neoclassicism'"><span>neo-classicism</span></a>, Alfred Gilbert (1854-1934), Harry Bates (1850-99) and Hamo Thornycroft (1850-1925) were among the sculptors who can be associated with this short-lived movement. Although Fehr would have been aware of the first works of the New Sculptors, <i>The Rescue of Andromeda</i> lacks their vigour and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/naturalism" title="Glossary definition for 'Naturalism'"><span>naturalism</span></a>; the smooth surface finish and expressionless faces of the hero and victim making it closer to the tradition of British sculpture passed down from John Henry Foley (1818-74) and others. 
<br/>
<br/>The sculpture was displayed with the other works of the Chantrey Collection inside the Tate Gallery until 1911 when it was moved to its current location on the right hand side of the Millbank entrance. In May of that year Fehr wrote angrily to the Director, Charles Aitken:
<br/>
<br/></div>
<blockquote class="Normal__Text">I write to draw your attention to the fact that it is very unjust to place my group ‘The Rescue of Andromeda’ where it is at present being quite out of place with its surroundings. It was <span>never designed</span> to be <span>placed</span>
among and swamped by <span>heavy masonry </span>it is quite an injury to my. Many times I have been complimented by judges of Art – and among them personally by Lord Leighton, Alfred Gilbert and Sir John Millais and others; at present many have said it is a shame to have placed a statue of this description in its present position... (National Gallery archive)
<br/></blockquote>
<div class="Normal__Text">
<br/>The sculpture remained in its position outside the gallery, and a distraught Fehr wrote again to Aitken:  
<br/>
<br/></div>
<blockquote class="Normal__Text">It seems to me that after all these years I am to be turned out of the inside collection due to the size of the statue and oweing to a wish to balance a group of a heavy description which mine is distinctly not - ; ... a large work does not detract from other smaller works as you can note in the Paris collections also others every year you see small works quite holding their own against large works in fact a good small work would stand out against any work of size Alfred Gilberts small works have stood out in the RA next to large works ... I must appeal to my brother artists to see justice done to me in this : I do not wish to call upon outside influence but on my brother sculptors surely they would not fail to see me righted in this and I am sure that no Director of an important collection would like to be judged for placing a work in a very bad way so that even the public let alone sculptors can see the bad position ... I dare not allow this to ruin my reputation without asking my fellow sculptors to do the right thing (National Gallery Archive). 
<br/></blockquote>
<div class="Normal__Text">
<br/>Unfortunately there is little evidence of how, or if, Fehr’s ‘brother artists’ campaigned to move the sculpture back to its original position in the gallery and, despite Fehr’s frustration voiced in the letters above, the sculpture was not moved. Fehr did, however, continue to receive commissions, notably for a marble bust of John Ruskin and statues of James Watt and John Harrison for the City Square in Leeds. 
<br/>
<br/><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/><i>Frederic Leighton 1830-1896, </i>exhibition catalogue, p.91, reproduced p.91
<br/>
<br/>Heather Birchall
<br/>September 2003
<br/>
<br/></div>

Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p><b>N01749</b> PERSEUS RESCUING ANDROMEDA 1893
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘H.C. Fehr Sc. 1893’ on left of base.
<br/>Bronze, 108×102×86 (274·5×269×218·5), including base, diameter 47 1/2 (121).
<br/>Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1894.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> R.A., 1894 (1747).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> M. H. Spielmann, <i>British Sculpture and Sculptors of To-day</i>, 1901, p.138, repr. p.140.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> <i>Art Journal</i>, 1894, p.212; Herbert Maryon, <i>Modern Sculpture</i>, 1933, pl.155.</p>
<p>The <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> was exhibited at the R.A. in 1893 (1683) as ‘The Rescue of Andromeda’. It attracted considerable attention and with the encouragement of Lord Leighton was <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> the following year.</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</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: expressive adults Andromeda animals: fantastic attacking body Cetus classical myths: creatures classical myths: gods and heroes female Gorgon / Medusa head / face male man nudes objects people Perseus religion and belief sea monster sword weapons woman