The Three Graces

Richard Cockle Lucas (1800-1883) is mainly known as a sculptor in wax and ivory, but he also worked in glass, marble and bronze, as well as being a painter. Lucas began his career as a sculptor as an apprentice to his uncle, who worked as a cutler in Winchester, carving knife handles. He joined the Royal Academy Schools in 1828 and studied under Richard Westmacott. Lucas made two models of the Parthenon, in its original state and after the explosion of 1687, which were acquired by the British Museum. He is best known for his small scale works including wax sculptures and ivory carvings. Lucas was at the centre of a controversy about the bust of Flora in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin. The bust was thought to be an authentic work by Leonardo da Vinci but the sculptor's son Albert Dürer Lucas claimed in the Burlington Magazine that the bust was modelled by his father.

It is now generally thought that the bust is probably by Leonardo or his circle but was repaired by Lucas. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1829 and 1859 and showed ivory carvings and imitation bronzes at the Great Exhibition in 1851.

Although both these ivories depict classical subjects, they are certainly Victorian in style and scale, suggesting a more domesticated and less monumental context.

The Graces, Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia, were the daughters of Zeus, and personifications of grace and beauty. They are generally represented, as here, almost nude, with a wisp of drapery draped around their hips, embracing each other, their arms intertwined. Lucas has shown the Grace on the right virtually as a back view, while the central figure is viewed from the front, and that one body of the Grace on the left is seen from the side. They could thus be said to show together, even though in relief form, the figure of the female nude from almost all angles. Presumably Lucas intended to depict idealised female forms, but the anatomical proportions are somewhat awkward, as can be seen in the overly slender legs, the miniscule feet and the figures’ somewhat clumsy stance.