Marble
Tate Collection
Works with images
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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>
Mother Teaching Child
Bequeathed by H.L. Doulton 1931
actions: postures and motions
adults
boy
children
education
education, science and learning
educational and scientific
family
Gilbert, Alfredo
individuals: male
mother and child
named individuals
people
portraits
sitting
society
student
teacher
woman
work and occupations
<p><i>Mother Teaching Child</i> is one of the few marble carvings Gilbert made in Rome, as he soon turned to modelling in clay to cast in bronze. He used his son Alfedo and his nurse as models. The group is partly based on an influential naturalistic sculpture of a mother and child made by the French sculptor Jules Dalou. Gilbert’s composition is also loosely based on Michelangelo and Raphael, linking past and present art. This sculpture was a private commission from Henry Doulton, owner of the Doulton Pottery, who visited Gilbert in Rome.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
sculpture marble
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
20 March 2009 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
20 March 2009 – 17 October 2010
2010-10-17
2009-03-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-03-20
New Sculpture
Collection based display
Mother Teaching Child
object: 1035 × 673 × 660 mm, 505kg
Bequeathed by H.L. Doulton 1931
<p><i>Mother Teaching Child</i> is one of the few marble carvings Gilbert made in Rome, as he soon turned to modelling in clay to cast in bronze. He used his son Alfedo and his nurse as models. The group is partly based on an influential naturalistic sculpture of a mother and child made by the French sculptor Jules Dalou. Gilbert’s composition is also loosely based on Michelangelo and Raphael, linking past and present art. This sculpture was a private commission from Henry Doulton, owner of the Doulton Pottery, who visited Gilbert in Rome.  
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04586</b> MOTHER TEACHING CHILD 1881
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>White marble, 40 3/4×26 1/2×26 (103.5×67.5×66).
<br/>Bequeathed by Henry Lewis Doulton 1931.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> Sir Henry Doulton (d. 1897); his son Henry Lewis Doulton.
<br/><i>Lit:</i> Monkhouse in <i>Magazine of Art</i>, 1889, pp.1–5, repr.; M. H. Spielmann, <i>British Sculpture and Sculptors of To-day</i>, 1901, p.76, repr. p.77; McAllister, 1929, p.57, repr. pl.3; Cox, 1936, p.11; Bury, 1952, p.70.</p>
<p>This work was commissioned in Rome in 1881 by Sir Henry Doulton. McAllister (1929, at pl.3) dates the work 1879, but a manuscript biography of Sir Henry Doulton by Sir Edmund Gosse, in the possession of Desmond Eyles of Doulton &amp; Co. Ltd, appears to be conclusive evidence for the later date. Spielmann says that the model for the mother was the artist's servant and that the child was the artist's second son Alfredo. The servant was also the model for the early ‘Study of a Head’ (repr. Bury, 1952, pl.3). Cox (1936, p.11) suggests that the marble group was made as a challenge to the ‘Mother of the Gracchi’ by Gilbert's old master, Cavelier.</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
2004-07-20T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults boy children education educational and scientific education, science and learning family Gilbert, Alfredo individuals: male mother and child named individuals people portraits sitting society student teacher woman work and occupations