{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O106986"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O106986/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AD1007/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AD1007/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AD1007","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AD0923","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AD0908","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JY0343","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O106986/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O106986","accessionNumber":"A.39-1928","objectType":"Figure","titles":[{"title":"Nude Woman","type":"named collection"}],"summaryDescription":"Eric Gill is said to have carved this piece during a train journey from London to his home in Wales. He rarely worked in ivory, and only three small pieces by him are known. His belief in 'truth to materials' can be seen in the use of the tusk's natural shape and colour to represents the figure, particularly the hair.\n\nEric Gill (1882–1940) was a British engraver and author and an innovative typographic designer and carver of lettering, as well as being an accomplished sculptor. He played as seminal role in the development of modern sculpture in Britain in the interwar years. After Chichester Technical Art School he moved to London in 1899, where he served as an apprentice draughtsman to the architect William D. Caroe (1857-1938), whilst also attending evening classes in lettering in Central School of Arts  &amp; Crafts and classes in masonry and letter-cutting at the Westminster Technical Institute. He left London in 1903 and settled in Ditchling, Sussex, where he opened a workshop and started to sculpt, as well as writing on social, political and religious subjects. His strong religious faith coupled with his fear of the industrial commercialisation if the modern world, made him to convert to Roman Catholicism, and subsequently he set up the crafts Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic. Gill has become a controversial figure following the 1989 publication of a revelatory biography by Fiona MacCarthy. Nearly 50 years after his death, it emerged that he had kept diaries detailing his acts of sexual abuse, incest and bestiality","physicalDescription":"Carved ivory figure of a woman. The woman stands naked with her arms by her sides, her hands on her thighs. Her hair hangs to her shoulders, merging on the top of her head to the discoloured tip of the tusk. The statuette is only cut as far as the knee and the base is natural tusk.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Gill, Arthur Eric Rowton","id":"A4651"},"association":{"text":"sculptor","id":"AAT25181"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"ivory","id":"AAT11857"}],"techniques":[],"materialsAndTechniques":"Carved walrus ivory on wood socle","categories":[{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2006AD1007","2006AD0923","2006AD0908","2017JY0343"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"21","id":"THES49848"},"free":"","case":"CA002","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Figure","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1927","earliest":"1927-01-01","latest":"1927-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Mr A. E. Anderson","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"24.8","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"ivory alone","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"33","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"whole","note":""},{"dimension":"Weight","value":"0.5","unit":"kg","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Historical significance: One of Gill's pupils has recorded how Gill made this carving on the return train journey from Capel y ffin in Wales (Gill's home from 1924-1928) to London. \nGiven by Mr E.A. Anderson in 1928. Commissioned by Gill's friend and associate, Father John O'Connor (1870-1952), priest at St Cuthbert's Church, Bradford.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Statuette, carved ivory, figure of a nude woman, by Eric Gill, England, 1927","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Ritchie, C. I. A. <font -u>Modern Ivory Carvings.</font> London 1972, p. 149, ill. on p. 150"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Collins, Judith. <font -u>Eric Gill: The sculpture.</font> London, 1998, p. 129, cat. 124"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Trusted, Marjorie, <u>Baroque & Later Ivories</u>, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2013, cat. no. 203"},{"reference":{"text":"<i>Strict delight : the life and work of Eric Gill, 1882-1940</i>, Manchester : The Gallery, 1980.","id":"AUTH357930"},"details":"5.11","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"woman","id":"x35642"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Gill is said to have carved this piece during a train journey from London to his home in Wales. He rarely worked in ivory, and only three small pieces by him are known. His belief in 'truth to materials' can be seen in the use of the tusk's natural shape and colour to represent the figure, particularly the hair.","date":{"text":"March 2007","earliest":"2007-03-01","latest":"2007-03-31"}}],"partNumbers":["A.39-1928"],"accessionNumberNum":"39","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":1928,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-10-22","recordCreationDate":"2004-11-01","availableToBook":false}}