The Artist, from whom acquired by the present owner's father

New York, Terry Dintenfass Gallery, Elisabeth Frink, 1983;
London, Royal Academy, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings 1952-84, February - March 1985, cat. no.84 (another cast).

Michael Brenson, 'Elisabeth Frink', The New York Times, 11th November 1983;
Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings 1952-84 (exh. cat.), London, Royal Academy, 1985, no. 84, illustrated (another cast);
Annette Ratuszniak (ed.), Elisabeth Frink, Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93, Lund Humphries in association with the Frink Estate and Beaux Arts, London, 2013, p.160, cat. no.FCR321, illustrated p.161 (another cast).

The sculpture appears sound. There are some traces of casting residue in places. The work has recently benefited from a light wax, carried out by Plowden & Smith Ltd, 90 St Ann's Hill, London SW18 2RT. The sculpture sits atop a bronze bench. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Throughout her career, and indeed from early in her life, Elisabeth Frink was preoccupied with the idea of ‘maleness.’ We see in her sculptures a search for archetypes, as for her the male figure is representative of both man and mankind: her men are heroes, they are villains, there is power, but she is also interested in fragility. Frink stated that ‘I can sense in a man’s body a combination of strength and vulnerability – not as weakness but as the capacity to survive through stoicism or passive resistance, or to suffer or feel…’ (The Artist, quoted in Bryan Robertson, Elisabeth Frink Sculpture Catalogue Raisonné, Harpvale, Salisbury, 1984, pp.36-37). For Frink, the male body was a symbol of humanity in which she explored the complexity of the human condition, addressing the power, bravery, and splendour of mankind, but also human’s fundamental propensity for aggression, viciousness, and revulsion. This is evident in her horse and rider figures- the exposed nude male atop a powerful mount - and again in her Seated Man - his weighty form suggesting brutish strength and endurance, but his contemplative gaze and restful stance also conveying a nobility and respect. As Frink largely eschewed the female form that she believed held too many traditional connotations of idealised beauty within the canon of Western art, her devotion to the portrayal of the male body set her apart from her contemporaries, and on a course to becoming one of the most interesting British sculptors of the Twentieth Century.   

Frink’s father was a soldier in the Second World War and, while missing for much of her childhood, may have been part of the reason she became so fascinated with male iconography. As she states:

‘I had a great admiration for men from an early age. This was partly because my father was extremely handsome. I was used to meeting his colleagues – his fellow officers - and they were very glamourous in their uniforms: cavalry boots and things like that. Men were very much a part of my early life because of the army. I used to look up to them, and hero-worship them’ (The Artist quoted in Edward Lucie-Smith and Elisabeth Frink, Frink: A Portrait, Bloomsbury Publishing Limited, London, 1994, p.15).

During the war Frink lived in Suffolk and came into contact with aircraft and pilots of the great Bomber Command. A group of Polish airmen were frequent visitors to her family home and it is perhaps here she came face to face with the contrast between outward male vigour and each of our inherent vulnerability, as she witnessed planes arriving back on the airfield on fire or heard of those lost in action. This first hand observation of man’s brutality to man remained in Frink’s psyche and was a subject that occupied her artistic output – from her Goggle Heads of th🍬e 1960s through to her imposing face-painted warriors of the 1980s.

The model for Seated Man is likely to have been Frink’s husband Alex Csáky, as it, along with many of the monumental heads of the 1980s, seems to bear a distinct resemblance to his physiognomy. Frink regularly drew inspiration from those closest to her, her works often taking on facial characteristics of loved ones, with many also bearing a striking resemblance to herself. Seated Man, with its broad build, and rounded musculature, moves away from the lithe athletic physiques of Frink’s earlier male forms. The move towards this stockier, monumental, and particularly virile male form, finds continuation in her Seated Man II (1986) and her Riace Warriors (1986), which also veer away from the supple leathery surface of Seated Man and towards a highly textured finish. The genesis of these pieces was Frink’s experience of two fift🤪h-century Greek bronze statues that had been discovered off the coast of Reggio Calabria in𒁏 1972:

‘I remember reading about the Riace warriors- how they were found in the sea off Calabria and brought to the surface. Then I remember them being on show in Florence. The original figures are very beautiful, but also sinister, and that is what they are supposed to be…’(The Artist, quoted in Bryan Robertson, op. cit., p.125).

In 1974 Frink settled in Dorset, setting up a new large studio; a transition that had a profound effect on her life and work.  She wrote:

‘We wanted to move out of the city and into the country again. We eventually found the house in Doᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚrset. This ꧋particular place influences my work directly because it is in a landscape I enjoy and feel uncluttered in, and because landscape has become essential to my work. Living in the country means being nearer to the elements, the climate and the changes of the seasons - it is a constant source of ideas.’ (Elisabeth Frink, //elisabethfrink-estate.com). 

Perhaps as a consequence of the move, Frink began producing increasingly large works with wonderfully rich textured surfaces, created by applying wet plaster to an underlying armature and then carving into the surface once dry to achieve the desired effect. She became increasingly enthusiastic about her sculpture being shown in the open air, and was an early supporter of Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which hosted an open air retrospective of her work in 1983. Just larger than life-size, the scale of Seated Man gives the sculpture an imposing presence which arrests our attention and is beautifully accommodated by 🍌a natural outdoor setting.