Dimensions: support, circular: 260 x 260 mm
Copyright: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This circular relief portrays Alfred Tennyson by Thomas Woolner. Its scale is quite intimate, yet the subject seems caught in thought, almost melancholy. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I see a poet frozen in time, his intense profile forever contemplating the next verse. It's as if Woolner has captured the very moment of inspiration. Editor: It’s really beautiful. I find myself wondering what he was pondering at that moment. Curator: Perhaps "The Charge of the Light Brigade"? Or maybe something far more personal. Editor: It's fascinating how a simple portrait can hold so much. Curator: Indeed. Art is a mirror, reflecting both the subject and ourselves.
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Woolner was the only sculptor in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. This plaster cast is one of the best-known portrait reliefs of the poet Alfred Tennyson. Woolner considered it the best portrait roundel he had ever made, even though he had to adapt it to appease the poet’s wife, Emily, who requested that he shorten the nose to ennoble the profile. Tennyson’s poetry was a rich source of inspiration to the Pre-Raphaelites. Gallery label, November 2016
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