The Poet: Lord Byron [Bronze]

The Poet: Lord Byron [Bronze]

Figure sculpture, American--20th century

LORD BYRON, 1938
Bronze, cast c. 1985

When Fredericks was a teenager his inspiration was Lord Byron, the nineteenth-century Romantic poet who became associated with a haughty, melancholy mood. Fredericks presents Lord Byron in a dramatic pose with his head thrown back and hand raised to his forehead. He seems to suffer inner turmoil suggestive of the melancholic life of the poet. Lord Byron's left leg was slightly shorter than his right and he was sensitive about his lameness. Fredericks captured this aspect of Byron's personality by posing him draped in a long cape which partially conceals his legs.
Fredericks is currently enlarging LORD BYRON to about twice life-size for placement outside the Arbury Fine Arts Center.

Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998

1938

Use of this image requires permission from the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum

Sculpture

University Center (Mich.)

30.5" x 9.5" x 6.25"
Base is 6" x 6" x 4.5"

Bronze

1991.058

Directors office

11/14/2007 gifted to MFSM

MF, Sculptor copy:
His last monumental work, Lord Byron, designed in 1938, enlarged by the artist, and cast posthumously in 1998 for the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, paradoxically seems to refer back to Fredericks's earliest influences. This literary figure, clearly inspired by Rodin's Balzac, strikes a shamelessly dramatic pose: head flung back with his hand on his forehead, heavy cloak partially pulled around his body with the other hand flying out to the side in back. Fredericks, in contrast to the symmetry that generally characterizes his designs, treated each side of the Byron figure in a different manner. Along its right side, the figure is closed and solid. The drop of the heavy cloak does not allow for the articulation of forms or even for any suggestion of the body beneath. Rather, the artist exploits the long, unbroken line of the cloak from the figure's chin to the ground. In contrast, the figure's left side is open and plastic with elbow and knee flung out at an angle from a nipped-in waist. Like Sun Worshipper, Lord Byron represents an important mid-career design that he was only able to realize in large scale at the end of his career.
The blocky solidity of the right side of Lord Byron suggests a reference to Black Elk, designed in 1980, enlarged to full scale by the artist and cast posthumously in 1998. Although the cloak completely conceals his body, the strength and dignity of Black Elk is nevertheless conveyed by the figure's mass. This use of the cloak to both conceal and reveal the body in his later sculpture adds a sense of pathos that is missing from Fredericks's early monumental works. The dynamic, unusual treatment of these figures, as well as their uncharacteristic subjects, is tangible evidence that Fredericks continued to push the parameters that had come to define his work.

Molly Barth copy for case #62:
The next display case shows his small bronzes. Some of them are the largest they've gotten, or some of them the small scale. [work] On the left is Two Bears. We have the full-size plaster model for this here in the gallery. One is a brown bear and the other is a black bear. Normally, they don't get along too well. The next piece is Don Quixote. We have the full-size piece in the gallery and outside in the sculpture garden. This bronze has been silver plated. The next bronze is Eve. He did that for the Mother and Child. Here she is holding the golden apple. The Detroit Institute of Arts has a cast of this one in their collection. The next one is Black Elk: The Homage to the Great Spirit. He is holding a peace pipe and stands by a buffalo. He was a very learned man and was the first Indian to describe the Indian dances and what they meant. A book called: Black Elk Speaks was written about him. In the center is Lord Byron, the poet. Notice that Lord Byron was slightly handicapped. His left leg was slightly shorter than his right, but the cape hides that fact. He died at a very young age, and Fredericks captured him as he had his hand up to his forehead as though he was thinking very hard. He wrote about the mountains and the edelweiss, and down below there is a flower of edelweiss. Also in this display case, he has the pair: The Indian and the Buffalo, and The Pioneer Woman and the Ox. These are also bronze casts. You can see how the patination, the coloring, can change on these. You can really color a bronze just about any color.


From 1995 Mary Iorio of Cranbrook, interview with Fredericks: Iorio made a note that the "refined 16 ft sculpture was meant for the poet's birthplace."


Fredericks did not receive a commission to do this work and was know from time to time to wheel it out and work on it when he had some free time. It is suggested that he worked on it over 18 years and maybe longer.