Dame Elisabeth Frink R.A., (British, 1930-1993)

Lying Down Horse 43 cm. (17 in.) long

Lying Down Horse
signed and numbered 'Frink 4/6' (on the left flank) and stamped with foundry stamp (on the underside)
bronze with a dark brown patina
43 cm. (17 in.) long
Conceived in 1975

Provenance
With Beaux Arts, London, where acquired by the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.

Literature
Jill Willder (ed.), Elisabeth Frink Sculpture Catalogue Raisonné, Salisbury, 1984, pp.184-5, cat.no.217 (ill.b&w., another cast)
Annette Ratuszniak (ed.), Elisabeth Frink, Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93, Lund Humphries, London, 2013, p.129, cat.no.FCR245 (col.ill., another cast)

Amongst the most familiar of Frink's motifs, the examination of horses dates back to her earliest works of the 1950s, however it is the equine subjects which dominated her output between 1969 and 1985 that receive the highest acclaim:

This is Frink at her most relaxed. She knew everything about horses, and had the ability to sculpt them with both broad consequence and, at the same time, exacting precision. This accounts for their strength and agility. There's hardly any detail, but they are so alive that you expect one at any moment to flick a fly away with the swish of its tail or shake of its head. (Julian Spalding, in Annette Ratuszniak (ed.), Elisabeth Frink, Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93, Lund Humphries, London, 2013, p.18)

Following a move to the south of France in 1967 Frink became fascinated by the Camargue horses, a wild and ancient breed indigenous to the region. These horses suited her purpose far more than those she had previously been familiar with as a keen rider in her youth. She elaborates; 'The horse sculptures are nothing to do with the horse you see here in England ? the hunter, the show horse, the race horse. They're much more to do with the ancient spirit of the horse and with its evolution in relation to Man. The animals I make are far more what I feel for them than what they are in real life. I'm imprecise about the muscles... I'm much more interested in the spirit of the animal. I get into the inside of the animal and the outside takes care of itself (Edward Lucie-Smith and Elisabeth Frink, Frink, A Portrait, Bloomsbury, London, 1994, p.50).