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(1.)
'THE MERMAID', A PATINATED-BRONZE, IVORY AND MARBLE SCULPTURE
CAST AND CARVED FROM A MODEL BY WALTER WINANS, 1905
Inscribed Walter Winans 1905 and impressed with a circular seal/medal Cristal Palace Exhibition 1893 Awarded to Walter Winans
27 1/2in. high (70cm.) high
EXHIBITED
London, The Royal Academy, The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The One Hundred and Forty-First, May 3rd - August 2nd 1909
LITERATURE
The Royal Academy, The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, The One Hundred and Forty-First, p. 59, no 1704.
Walter Winans was born in 1852 on the outskirts of St Petersburg, Russia. He was the son of a wealthy American family who helped construct the railroad network in Russia. He was educated there before moving to England at the age of eighteen. Shortly thereafter he inherited much of his father's fortune.
Winans had numerous talents, he was awarded three Olympic medals at the 1912 games, two for sharp shooting and one for sculpture. It was however his talent for the arts that became his passion, and although he excelled in many disciplines sculpture is the medium in which he is most revered.
At the Cristal Palace Exhibition 1893 he was awarded a medal and at the Paris Exposition Universelle, 1900, a Silver Medal. The Royal Academy regularly exhibited his work, including 'The Mermaid', in 1909. The sculpture possibly took its inspiration from an oil painting titled 'A Mermaid' by John William Waterhouse (A fellow Royal Academician) which was displayed at the Royal Academy in 1901. Winans was a member of the Chevalier of Imperial Russian Order and the French society of 'Peintres et Sculpteurs du Cheval'.
Several sculptures by Winans form part of the permanent exhibition at the Marble Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia and Hartsfield House in London.