LONDON.- The final volume in the prestigious British Sculptors and Sculpture series published by Lund Humphries, in partnership with the Henry Moore Institute, addresses the work of the important but neglected British sculptor Francis Derwent Wood RA (1871 – 1926).

‘Withey demonstrates Derwent Wood’s artistic development, underlining his observant eye and attention to detail that led him to become recognised as ‘the first English sculptor of his time’ in 1919’’– Lisa Le Feuvre, Head of Sculpture Studies, Henry Moore Institute.

A student of Edouard Lanteri at the Royal College of Art, Derwent Wood’s early artistic career was distinguished. His reputation grew rapidly and a period as Director of Modelling at the Glasgow School of Art saw him working on public commissions with many of the city’s most important architects. Simultaneously, he built his London practice, perfecting the art of the rapidly executed, observationally astute portrait bust, and becoming a well-connected member of the Chelsea set. He exhibited at the Royal Academy every year from 1895 until his death in 1926, becoming a full Academician in 1920. During the First World War he carried out pioneering work in the field of facial prosthetics. He was appointed Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art in 1918, where Henry Moore was amongst his many pupils.

Derwent Wood’s Machine Gun Corps memorial at Hyde Park Corner in London, completed in the year of his death, is amongst the best-known and most consistently reviled sculptures in Britain. Matthew Withey offers readers a subtle and layered interpretation of the career that led up to this iconic and misunderstood work, together with a comprehensive catalogue of Derwent Wood’s diverse body of work.

Matthew Withey studied art and architectural history at the University of Edinburgh and the University of St. Andrews, receiving his Doctorate from St. Andrews in 2003. He curated the sculpture collections of Leeds Museums and Galleries from 2000 to 2005, and has worked on major research projects on British sculpture at the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Glasgow. He has taught art history at the Open University, the University of Leeds and Leeds College of Art, and worked in research and curatorial positions at English Heritage and Abbotsford: the home of Sir Walter Scott in the Scottish Borders. He currently works at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.

The series is a partnership between the Henry Moore Institute and Lund Humphries. Also available in this series:

• The Sculpture of Gertrude Hermes by Jane Hill 9780853318651 HB £50

• The Sculpture of John Skeaping by Jonathan Blackwood 9780853319313 HB £50

• The Sculpture of Reg Butler by Margaret Garlake 9780853319146 HB £50

• The Sculpture of F.E. McWilliam by Denise Ferran and Valerie Holman 9781848220492 HB £50

The Henry Moore Institute is a centre for the study of sculpture, based in the heart of Leeds. An exhibitions venue, research centre, library and sculpture archive, the Institute is part of the Henry Moore Foundation, which was set up by the sculptor Henry Moore in 1977 to encourage appreciation of the visual arts, especially sculpture.