Collection
Cloaked Figure IX
Lynn Chadwick, R.A. (1914-1978)
Cloaked Figure IX
bronze
1.85 m high
1978
on loan from Erle Randall
Cloaked Figure IX is typical of Lynn Chadwick's stylised and geometric figurative forms. During the 1970s he was predominately concerned with male and female figures. These figures, often in pairs, sometimes sit and sometimes walk, side by side. Without a companion Cloaked Figure IX has a solitary air. The cloak, a feature of many of Chadwick's sculptures, is gently held and trails behind, giving the figure a sense of stately forward movement and a dramatic silhouette.
'In Cloaked Figure IX' one feels he [Chadwick] has really mastered the technical possibilities of his medium. This tall, majestic and elegant figure glides towards us, her arms holding her cloak close to her body, yet parted sufficiently to allow her limbs to move. The folds of the cloak ripple and undulate around her, defining her shape yet simultaneously concealing it, giving her an aura of mystery, even remoteness' (D. Farr, exhibition catalogue, Lynn Chadwick, Tate Britain, London, 2003, pp. 76-7).