Small Plaster Study for 'Hugh Lupus'

Sculpture height: 90 cm

Small Plaster Study for 'Hugh Lupus', study later used in relation to 'Physical Energy'

Hugh Lupus

Gesso grosso model

Conserved with the generous support of The de Laszlo Foundation & The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust

In April 1870 the Duke of Westminster commissioned Watts to make a large equestrian bronze to represent his mythical ancestor, High Lupus, the first Norman Earl of Chester (le Gros Veneur). The completed sculpture was cast at the foundry at Thomas Ditton in 1883 and erected shortly after in one of the courts in Eaton Hall, Chester, which has been rebuilt in the neo-gothic style. Watts created the maquette in gesso grosso and the sculpture was the original inspiration for Physical Energy.