Marble
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-william-reid-dick-1003" aria-label="More by Sir William Reid Dick" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir William Reid Dick</a>
Dawn
Presented by Sir Charles and Lady Tennyson in memory of their son Lieutenant Penrose Tennyson, RNVR 1942
actions: processes and functions
baby
body
children
Dick, John
head / face
individuals: male
named individuals
people
portraits
sleeping
<p>This sensitive carving of a head of a sleeping infant creates an illusion of softness without attempting to deny the hardness of the marble. The roughly-textured base serves to remind us that we are encountering a material object, while at the same the head conveys an uncanny sense of human presence.</p><p>The emergence of the head from its base serves to enshrine the baby, suggesting new life while also hinting at death. Dick also produced a smaller version of this subject in bronze.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
sculpture marble
4 October 2008 – 11 January 2009
2009-01-11
4 October 2008 – 11 January 2009
2009-01-11
2008-10-04
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2008-10-04
Heimo Zobernig and the Tate Collection
Exhibition
Dawn
object: 248 × 140 × 178 mm, 9.3 kg
Presented by Sir Charles and Lady Tennyson in memory of their son Lieutenant Penrose Tennyson, RNVR 1942
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<span class="text13">This sensitive carving of a head of a sleeping</span><span class="text0"> infant creates an illusion of softness</span><span class="text14"> </span><span class="text0">without attempting to deny the      hardness of the marble. The roughly-textured base serves to remind us that      we are encountering a material object, while at the same the head conveys      an uncanny sense of human presence. </span>
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<div class="para9">
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<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text0">The emergence of the head from its base serves to      enshrine the baby, suggesting new life while also hinting at death. Dick      also produced a smaller version of this subject 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>. </span>
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Display caption
2004-09-10T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05378</b> DAWN 1921
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘Reid Dick, A.R.A. 1921’ b.r.
<br/>Marble, 9 3/4×5 1/2×7 (25×14×18).
<br/>Presented by Sir Charles and Lady Tennyson in memory of their son, Lieutenant
<br/>Penrose Tennyson, R.N.V.R., 1942.
<br/><i>Coll:</i>
Purchased from the artist at the R.A. 1921 by E. P. Dawber of the Fine Art Society; no further record.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> R.A., 1921 (1110).
<br/><i>Repr:</i> H. Granville Fell, <i>Sir William Reid Dick, K.C.V.O., R.A.,</i> 1945, pl.4 (wrongly dated 1920).</p>
<p>This is a head made from the artist's son John and was started when he was a few days old. Another version, in two pieces of marble, was included in the exhibition <i>Artists aid Russia</i>, Wallace Collection, July–August 1942 (480); it was still in the artist's possession in 1956. (Letter from the artist, 19 March 1956.)</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>
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Catalogue entry
2004-07-21T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: processes and functions baby body children Dick, John head / face individuals: male named individuals people portraits sleeping