Manual Ref* NFnrNOR018 Show 5 images 21
Title*

Mother and Child
County Norfolk   District Council Norwich City Council 
Civil Parish or equivalent Norwich City Council  Town/Village* Norwich - Cathedral Close 
Road Cathedral Close 
Precise Location Upper close 
OS Grid Ref TG235087  Postcode NR3 
Previous location(s)  
Setting Religious, in Cathedral Close  Access Public 
Artist/Maker Role Qualifier
George Fullard  Sculptor(s)   
Gallizia, London  Foundry   

Commissioned by

 Plaster first exhibited, Woodstock Gallery, London 1958, Bronze commissioned Norfolk Contemporary Art Society, 1974 

Design & Constrn period

 Designed 1958, cast 1978 

Date of installing

 1978 

Exact date of unveiling

  

Category
Abstract Animal Architectural
Commercial Commemorative Composite
Free Functional Funerary
Heraldic Military Natural
Non-Commemorative Performance Portable
Religious Roadside, Wayside Sculptural
Temporary, Mobile Other  

Object Type
Building Clock Tower Architectural
Coat of Arms Cross Fountain
Landscape Marker Medallion
Mural Panel Readymade
Relief Shaft Sculpture
Statue Street Furniture War Memorial
Other Object Sub Type: Statue of Mother and Child

Subject Type
Allegorical Mythological Pictorial
Figurative Non-figurative Portrait
Still-life Symbolic Other

Subject Sub Type
Bust Equestrian Full-length
Group Head Reclining
Seated Standing Torso
Part Material Dimension
Mother and Child  Bronze  H 163 cm W 66 cm D 66 cm 
Base  Brick  H 14 cm x W 70 cm x D 70 cm 

Work is
Extant Not Sited Lost

Owner/Custodian

 Norwich Cathedral 

Listing status
Grade I Grade II* Grade II Don't Know Not Listed

Surface Condition
Corrosion, Deterioration Accretions
Bird Guano Abrasions, cracks, splits
Biological growth Spalling, crumbling
Metallic staining Previous treatments
Other  
Detail:

Structural Condition
Armature exposed Broken or missing parts
Replaced parts Loose elements
Cracks, splits, breaks, holes Spalling, crumbling
Water collection Other
Detail:

Vandalism
Graffiti Structural damage Surface Damage
Detail:

Overall condition
Good Fair Poor

Risk
No Known Risk At Risk Immediate
Signatures/Marks  
Inscriptions  

Description (physical)

 The group of Mother and Child had been left as a plaster model in the studio of the artist in the possession of his widow Irena. She made the this available to the Norfolk Contemporary Art Society for their first commission, cast by John Gallizia at a cost of £4,320. This was typical of Fullard's work, which, because of the cost, was only cast in plaster or cement during his lifetime, and in bronze after his death. 

Description (iconographical)

 The pose is inspired by myriad versions of the Christ Child with the Virgin Mary but the iconography is not specifically Christian. The mother is seated with exposed breasts - presumably to feed the large child she holds across her lap. Fullard had treated the theme of Mother and Child in an earlier full-length bronze of 1956, now in Sheffield. That fitted with his early preoccupation with the concept of 'realism' endorsed by the influential critic and writer John Berger. The later Norwich group with its heavily modelled surfaces and a Picasso-inspired treatment of forms is typical of Fullard's development away from his earlier naturalistic modelling and is an example of Herbert Read's description of British sculpture of the post war years as the 'geometry of fear'. Picasso offered Fullard further inspiration for assemblages from 1959 onwards and his inspired use of 'found' wood. 

Photographs

 Date taken:  29/4/2006
Date logged: 

Photographed by:
Sarah Cocke

On Site Inspection

 Date:  2/4/2006

Inspected by:
Richard Cocke and Yurika Konuma

Sources and References

 www.culturalmodes.norfolk.gov.uk/projects/02/04/06 Short, Robert, Norfolk Contemporary Art Society. Fifty years on…, Norwich 2006, 10-11 Whiteley Gillian (1998) Assembling the Absurd: the Sculpture of George Fullard- London: The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries Publishers, cat. 31, pp. 43-69; While, Darcy and Norman, Elizabeth, Public Sculpture of Sheffield and South Yorkshire, Liverpool, 2015, 177-178  

Database

 Date entered:  26/6/2006

Data inputter:
David Hulks