Description

Bronze from a lifetime plaster, cast in 2020 in an edition of 12.

This is the only bronze edition of this sculpture.

Dobson Estate stamp

Numbered

Black Isle Foundry stamp

The sculpture is similarly abstracted. The enclosing sphere of the bird’s body protects the chicks, while its wings jut out threateningly like blades or rockets, to deter potential predators. In fact, from behind, the sculpture could almost be a gun turret, and this mechanistic aspect suggests comparison with the Vorticist art of Dobson’s friend Wyndham Lewis… We can find no previous public record of The Nest, so now an edition has been cast and the image is published for the first time.

Andrew Lambirth, Frank Dobson Bring it Alive . Goldmark 2022.

Provenance: Derby Museum held the plaster for this until recently and there is a study drawing held in the V&A collection.