{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O49449"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O49449/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AL4058/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AL4058/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AL4058","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O49449/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O49449","accessionNumber":"A.31-2000","objectType":"Bust","titles":[{"title":"The Age of Innocence","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"The model for this bust was Gracie Doncaster, the daughter of one of Drury's friends. The bust itself is considered by Benedict Read to be one of the 'major icons' of the late 19th century English movement known as the 'New Sculpture'.\r\n\r\nThe signature and date are incised into the surface of the plaster after casting had taken place, suggesting that it was produced in 1897, probably from an original clay or terracotta bust now lost. The bust is likely to have been the sculptor's plaster model, probably used in the production of subsequent closely related versions: it is known to have been reproduced in marble and bronze. Versions have appeared in numerous sales. Bronze  versions are also held  in the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, the Manchester City Art Gallery and the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, although this version is significantly larger than most of the other known versions in bronze. Later reworked examples in marble are in the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, and in the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery; a further version was formerly in the Luxembourg Museum, Paris. \r\n\r\nA bronze was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1897, and it has been suggested that this was the version sold by Phillips on 23 September 1997 (signed and dated 1896). The date of that bronze, a year earlier than the date on this piece, would suggest that Drury had to make another model.","physicalDescription":"","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Drury, Alfred","id":"A3997"},"association":{"text":"sculptor","id":"AAT25181"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"plaster","id":"AAT14922"}],"techniques":[{"text":"cast","id":"x32615"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Plaster","categories":[{"text":"Children & Childhood","id":"THES48980"},{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Portrait","id":""}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2006AL4058"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"21A","id":"THES49844"},"free":"","case":"NWPILLAR","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Bust","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1897","earliest":"1897-01-01","latest":"1897-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by Mrs Joy Way","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"67.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"According to the donor the bust was given to her mother in the late 1930s by the sculptor, who lived opposite the family in Wimbledon when the donor was a child. Given by Mrs Joy Way, 'Wasp Well', Outwood, Redhill, Surrey, in 2000.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Bust, plaster cast, 'The Age of Innocence', by Alfred Drury, British, 1897","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Jonathan Marsden, <u>European Sculpture in the Collection of His Majesty the King</u>, London, 2025, vol. IV, p. 1415."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Thomas, Ben, 'The child is father of the man: Alfred Drury and temporality', in: <u>Sculpture Journal, Volume 24.1 [2015]</u>, pp. 55-72, ill. 56"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Sir Alfred Gilbert & The New Sculpture: British Sculpture 1850-1930</u>. London: The Fine Art Society, 2008, p. 20\r\n\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Bilbey, Diane with Trusted, Marjorie,<u>British Sculpture 1470 to 2000. A Concise Catalogue of the Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum</u>, London, 2002, pp. 254-5, cat. no. 386\r\n\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Beattie, Susan, <u>The New Sculpture</u>, New Haven and London: Yale, 1983, pp. 107-21, 167-74, 242, 260\r\n\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Cooper, Jeremy, <u>19th Century Romantic Bronzes</u>, London: David and Charles, 1975, pp. 88-89 \r\n\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Spielmann, M.H., <u>British Sculpture and Sculptors of Today</u>, London: Cassell and Company Ltd, 1901, pp. 109-114\r\n\r\n"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Baldry, A.L., 'The Art Movement: Decorative Sculpture by Mr Alfred Drury'. in: <u>Magazine of Art</u>, 1898, pp. 442-5"}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"bust","id":"AAT47457"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":["The Age of Innocence"],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"Alfred Drury (1856–1944)\r\n<i>Model for The Age of Innocence</i>\r\nSigned and dated 1897\n\r\nThis bust became an icon of the so-called New Sculpture movement in Britain. It combines naturalism with echoes of 15th-century Italian art in the girl’s Renaissance-style dress. Drury used the daughter of one of his friends, Gracie Doncaster, as the model for the plaster. He went on to make many other versions in both bronze and marble.\n\r\nEngland\r\nPlaster","date":{"text":"2021","earliest":"2021-01-01","latest":"2021-12-31"}}],"partNumbers":["A.31-2000"],"accessionNumberNum":"31","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":2000,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":["2019LU6106"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-28","recordCreationDate":"2000-11-21","availableToBook":false}}