Bronze
Tate Collection
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Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/stephen-tomlin-2054" aria-label="More by Stephen Tomlin" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Stephen Tomlin</a>
Lytton Strachey
Presented by Brinsley Ford (later Sir Brinsley Ford) 1932
adults
author
body
British
Cambridge Apostles
critic
head / face
homosexuality
individuals: male
literary
man
named groups
named individuals
nationality
people
portraits
sex and relationships
society
Strachey, Lytton
work and occupations
<p>The British artist Stephen Tomlin was closely associated with the circle of writers and artists known as the Bloomsbury Group. In 1928 he married the niece of the critic and biographer Lytton Strachey (1880-1932), one of the leading figures of the Bloomsbury Group, whose book called <i>Eminent Victorians</i> drily exposed the hypocrisies of the Victorian era. Strachey commissioned Tomlin to make this bust, and wrote: ‘I sit all day to Tommy, who is creating what appears to me a highly impressive, repulsive, and sinister object.’ Tomlin’s portrait suggests the writer’s combination of sagacity and diffidence.</p><p><i>Stephen Tomlin was born in 1901 in London, where he died in 1937.</i></p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
sculpture bronze
3 May 2004 – 30 August 2004
2004-08-30
3 May 2004
2004-05-03
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2004-05-03
Turbine Hall (heads)
Collection based display
Lytton Strachey
object: 420 × 240 × 220 mm, 15.5 kg
Presented by Brinsley Ford (later Sir Brinsley Ford) 1932
<p>The British artist Stephen Tomlin was closely associated with the circle of writers and artists known as 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/b/bloomsbury" title="Glossary definition for 'Bloomsbury '"><span>Bloomsbury Group</span></a>. In 1928 he married the niece of the critic and biographer Lytton Strachey (1880-1932), one of the leading figures of the Bloomsbury Group, whose book called <i>Eminent Victorians</i>
drily exposed the hypocrisies of the Victorian era. Strachey commissioned Tomlin to make this bust, and wrote: ‘I sit all day to Tommy, who is creating what appears to me a highly impressive, repulsive, and sinister object.’ Tomlin’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>portrait</span></a> suggests the writer’s combination of sagacity and diffidence.
<br/>
<br/><i>Stephen Tomlin was born in 1901 in London, where he died in 1937.</i>
<br/></p>

Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04616</b> LYTTON STRACHEY 1928–30
<br/>
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Bronze, 18×10×10 7/8 (46×25·5×28).
<br/>Presented by Brinsley Ford 1932.</p>
<p><i>Coll:</i> Purchased by Brinsley Ford from the Leicester Galleries 1930.</p>
<p><i>Lit:</i> R. F. Harrod, <i>The Life of John Maynard Keynes</i>, 1951, p.191.</p>
<p>Lytton Strachey commissioned Tomlin to make 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/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> bust in 1928 and made him an advance payment of £30 in December the same year. It was presumably completed in 1929 or '30 as Brinsley Ford bought 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/c/cast" title="Glossary definition for 'Cast'"><span>cast</span></a> now in the Tate, which was the second of an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/edition" title="Glossary definition for 'Edition'"><span>edition</span></a> of three, in April 1930. The cast which belonged to Lytton Strachey was later owned by Miss Philippa Strachey and is inscribed on the base ‘ST [in monogram] III’. A third cast in lead was acquired by David Garnett about 1930.</p>
<p>For a biographical note on Lytton Strachey see Henry Lamb, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lamb-lytton-strachey-t00118" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>T00118</span></a>.</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, II
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults author body British Cambridge Apostles critic head / face homosexuality individuals: male literary man named groups named individuals nationality people portraits sex and relationships society Strachey, Lytton work and occupations