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Melancholy nude women				Egyptian girls

Albert Toft
(1862-1949)
Spirit of Contemplation
Bronze, 1901; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England

A nude woman in an Egyptian headdress reclines in an ornately-carved chair.
This image, together with Edward Onslow Ford’s statue The Singer, inspired my adult story “The Singer”. Do not follow this link if you find erotic content offensive.

A scroll is draped across the woman’s lap, except in one photo which I previously identified as a plaster model but which may in fact be a variant bronze version.

Further information on the artist can be found at The Victorian Web (complete with typos - the headline mistakenly gives his first name as “Alfred”!) and also on Bob Speel’s site (UPDATED LINK), which has lots of useful information about artists, but unfortunately very few images.

Spirit of Contemplation: four views


Most of these images are incredibly rare, and it’s taken me years to find them.
(I don’t suppose some obliging Geordie photographer could visit the Laing Gallery and e-mail me a few dozen views of the statue in colour, could they?!)
(1) Version without scroll (plaster or bronze?) | (2) Version with scroll (bronze)
(3) Front overhead view | (4) Right view, signature on base

Other Works

Two rare webfinds:
(1) Hagar | (2) Evening

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