The Sunday Telegraph (London), December 5, 2004
"... an intriguing study of a half-forgotten episode in art history." - Martin Gayford

Book Description
Late nineteenth-century Britain experienced an explosion of interest in sculpture. Sculptors of the “New Sculpture” movement sought a new direction and a modern idiom for their art. This book analyzes for the first time the art-theoretical concerns of the late-Victorian sculptors, focusing on their attitudes toward representation of the human body. David J. Getsy uncovers a previously unrecognized sophistication in the New Sculpture through close study of works by key figures in the movement: Frederic Leighton, Alfred Gilbert, Hamo Thornycroft, Edward Onslow Ford, and James Havard Thomas.

These artists sought to activate and animate the conventional format of the ideal statue so that it would convincingly stand in for both a living body and an ideal image. Getsy demonstrates the conceptual complexity of the New Sculptors and places their concerns within the larger framework of modern sculpture.


From the Inside Flap
"David Getsy writes of sculpture as sculpture, something that is surprisingly rare. With a fine grasp of the theory and practice of modern sculpture, he attends not only to the three-dimensionality of the statues he discusses, but above all to the viewer's experience of their physicality and corporeality. Through its fascinating accounts of individual works, 'Body Doubles' builds a powerful case for a reassessment of the freestanding, ideal statue in the history of modern sculpture." - Elizabeth Prettejohn, Professor of Modern Art, University of Plymouth "Rather than asking us to forgive or overlook the wild embodiment of Victorian sculpture, Getsy makes an even bolder move: to show that these bronzes stake everything -- not the least their aesthetic relevance -- on an erotic presence as conceptually intricate as the works themsleves are physically detailed. The result puts on view more than Victorian bodily attitudes: it directly addresses the complex qualities of the Victorian mind." - Anne Wagner, Professor of Modern Art, University of California, Berkeley

About the Author
David J. Getsy is Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow of the Leslie Center for the Humanities and Department of Art History, Dartmouth College, and editor of Sculpture and the Pursuit of a Modern Ideal in Britain, c. 1880–1930.

FROM THE PUBLISHER