'youth', Sculpture on Circular Brick Plinth in the Garden

Reasons for Designation

The sculpture, 'Youth' made by Daphne Hardy-Henrion in 1951 for the Festival of Britain is designated for the following principal reasons: * Of special artistic interest as a work of the distinguished sculptor Daphne Hardy Henrion, and a rare surviving work of art associated with the Festival of Britain, with Leonard Manasseh as architect/client in both its original and current setting; * Also of special interest for its experimental use of concrete; * For group value with No. 6 Bacon's Lane, Manasseh's self-designed home.

Details

798-1/0/10257 BACON'S LANE 10-AUG-09 Highgate 6 'Youth', sculpture on circular brick p linth in the garden

II 'Youth', a sculpture by Daphne Hardy-Henrion, made in 1951 for the Festival of Britain to stand outside the '51 Bar by the architect, Leonard Manasseh, was installed in the brick-paved garden at Manasseh's home at No. 6 Bacon's Lane in 1959.

The sculpture is of an attenuated figure of a young woman, with one upstretched arm and one open palm. Concrete on a steel armature, the sculpture is a unique achievement in getting concrete so thin without cracking. The sculpture is a very rare surviving work of art from that most important celebration of British art and architecture, the Festival of Britain, and marks the collaboration between the architect/client and the artist.

It responds well to its setting overlooking Highgate Cemetery. Manasseh also designed the raised garden in which it is set, but which is not included in the listing.

HISTORY: Manasseh won a competition for a restaurant at the Festival of Britain in 1951 on the corner of the site next to County Hall, but it was aborted through lack of funds. He was, however, able to design a small bar together with its landscape, and to commission this statue, which he salvaged at the end of the Festival. It was to have been taken by the Ministry of Education who, however, rejected it as damaged. It was then secured by Manasseh and Hardy early in 1952 to save it from removal to the Arts Council's depot at Langley Airfield, where it would have almost certainly been neglected and ultimately destroyed. It was eventually placed on its present site when Manasseh completed building his family home in 1959.

Daphne Hardy-Henrion (1917-2003) established herself as a figurative sculptor at a time when abstraction was prevalent. Influenced by classical and Italian quattrocento sculpture, she was noted for her sensitive portraits, particularly her terracotta busts of children. She trained at the Royal Academy Schools in London from 1934-37. After winning the Schools' gold medal and travelling scholarship she studied art and particularly sculpture in France and Italy. She met and moved in with Arthur Koestler, who portrayed their life together in his autobiographical novel, Scum of the Earth (1941). She later married the designer FHK Henrion. Her portraits include her husband, Koestler and Laurie Lee. She exhibited at solo exhibitions from 1946, and was included in the 'Unknown Political Prisoner' exhibition and Arts Council touring show 'Sculpture in the Home' both in 1953. She exhibited regularly at the annual exhibitions of the Cambridge Society of Painters and Sculptors which started in the 1950s. Her public works included a memorial to the victims of Belsen in 1946, and a portrait of Haverhill, Suffolk, of closely observed figures set round miniature buildings.

Leonard Manasseh (b 1916) studied at the Architectural Association, and in 1937 won the subsidiary News Chronicle schools competition. After war service, he worked for Hertfordshire County Council, Stevenage Development Corporation and on the Festival of Britain. He was in private practice from 1950 but he spent most of the 1950s teaching at the Architectural Association, where he was head of the preliminary school, that is, first year classes. Work for the London County Council in the early 1960s included Rutherford school, now Lower Marylebone School (1959-60), and listed Grade II*, and Furzedown Teachers' Training College, Tooting (1961-65). His most extensive commission was for the Montagu Motor Museum at Beaulieu, where he collaborated with the planner Elizabeth Chesterton.

SOURCES: Arts Council Archive, Festival of Britain, 1951 (20), Disposals - General Robert Burstow, 'Modern Sculpture in the South Bank Townscape', in Twentieth Century Architecture, no. 5, The Festival of Britain, Twentieth Century Society, 2001, pp 97-106. Peter Black, obituary to Daphne Hardy-Henrion, The Guardian, 27 November 2003

REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATION The sculpture, 'Youth' made by Daphne Hardy-Henrion in 1951 for the Festival of Britain is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Of special artistic interest as a work of the distinguished sculptor Daphne Hardy Henrion, and a rare surviving work of art associated with the Festival of Britain, with Leonard Manasseh as architect/client in both its original and current setting; * Also of special interest for its experimental use of concrete; * For group value with No. 6 Bacon's Lane (qv), Manasseh's self-designed home.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

501690

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Burstow, R, Twentieth Century Architecture in Modern Sculpture in the South Bank Townscape, (2001), 97-106

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