Lot 2: Perseus with the head of Medusa

Frederick William Pomeroy (1856-1924) Perseus with the head of Medusa signed and dated 'F.W. POMEROY / SC. 1898 / N° 4' bronze, mid-brown patina 19 ½ in. (49.5 cm.) high

(49.5 cm.) high

Acquired before 1930, and by descent.

The hero Perseus holds aloft the head of the Gorgon Medusa, himself turning away to avoid being turned to stone by the gaze of the Gorgon. Inspired by Cellini’s bronze of the same subject, Pomeroy’s imagining of Perseus is also indebted to Mercié’s David Vainqueur, exhibited at the Salon of 1872, which Pomeroy must have seen when he was studying in Paris. Pomeroy exhibited a full-size plaster version of this subject at the Royal Academy in 1898 and a full-size bronze is in the collection of the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff. He subsequently produced a series of bronze reductions including the present example which is numbered ‘4’. Another cast of this size, originally in the Handley-Read collection, is in the collection of the V & A Museum, London (A.9-1972).