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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/paul-troubetzkoy-2068" aria-label="More by Paul Troubetzkoy" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Paul Troubetzkoy</a>
George Bernard Shaw
Presented by Mrs George Bernard Shaw 1927
beard
body
critic
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individuals: male
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Shaw, George Bernard
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<p>Prince Paul Troubetzkoy was an Italian born painter and sculptor, the son of a member of the Russian nobility. He made many portrait busts of famous men, such as Tolstoy and Anatole France. Shaw (1856-1950), the famous playwright and Fabian socialist, was a devoted vegetarian like Troubetzkoy. They were friends and Shaw sat to Troubetzkoy three times. The first was for a portrait bust in 1908, executed in three hours in a studio in London. Then, in 1926, at Troubetzkoy's studio at Lago Maggiore in Italy, Shaw posed for a life-size statue, a statuette showing him seated, and this second portrait bust.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
sculpture bronze
19 November 2013
19 November 2013
2013-11-19
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2013-11-19
Members Room
Collection based display
George Bernard Shaw
object: 594 × 365 × 267 mm
Presented by Mrs George Bernard Shaw 1927
<p>Prince Paul Troubetzkoy was an Italian born painter 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/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptor</span></a>, the son of a member of the Russian nobility. He made many <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/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> busts of famous men, such as Tolstoy and Anatole France. Shaw (1856-1950), the famous playwright and Fabian socialist, was a devoted vegetarian like Troubetzkoy. They were friends and Shaw sat to Troubetzkoy three times. The first was for a portrait bust in 1908, executed in three hours in a studio in London. Then, in 1926, at Troubetzkoy's studio at Lago Maggiore in Italy, Shaw posed for a life-size statue, a statuette showing him seated, and this second portrait bust.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<strong>Paul Troubetzkoy</strong> 1866-1938
<p>
<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/troubetzkoy-george-bernard-shaw-n04274" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04274</span></a> <strong>George Bernard Shaw</strong> 1926
</p><p>
Inscribed '1926 | Paul Troubetzkoy' l. side<br/>
Bronze, 23 3/8 x 14 3/8 x 10 1/2 (59.5 x 36.5 x 26.5)<br/>
Presented by Mrs Bernard Shaw 1927<br/>
<em>Lit:</em> Hesketh Pearson, <em>Bernard Shaw: his Life and Personality</em> (London 1943), pp.305-8
</p><p>
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), the playwright and Fabian Socialist, shared with Troubetzkoy a devotion to vegetarianism. In 1931 he wrote the foreword to the catalogue of Troubetzkoy's one-man show at Colnaghi's.
</p><p>
Troubetzkoy made his first bust of Shaw in 1908 in three hours' reckless work in Sargent's studio in London. Although Shaw rather liked it, he thought: 'It is not to be compared to the bust in the Tate Gallery, the life-size statue, and the statuette, all of which he made of me years later from unlimited sittings in his own studio at the Villa Cabianca on Lago Maggiore' (quoted in Pearson, loc. cit.). The early bust is in the foyer of the Theatre Guild in New York, and the statuette, which shows Shaw seated and is dated 1926, is in Shaw's house 'Shaw's Corner' at Ayot St Lawrence. 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/c/cast" title="Glossary definition for 'Cast'"><span>cast</span></a> of the life-size statue, depicting Shaw full-length in his pose as an orator, belongs to the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin. It is dated 1927.
</p><p>
John S. Grioni, who is preparing a catalogue of Troubetzkoy's work, says that he knows of no other <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> cast of this bust and that 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> models of all Shaw's <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/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a> are in the Museum of Pallanza, on Lago Maggiore.
</p><p>
<strong>Published in:</strong><br/>
Ronald Alley, <em>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</em>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.729, reproduced p.729
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</p>
Catalogue entry
2004-09-10T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
beard body critic government and politics head / face individuals: male Irish literary named individuals nationality people playwright portraits Shaw, George Bernard socialism society work and occupations