Artist:      after Charles Robinson Sykes (1882-1942)
Title:       Spirit of Ecstasy
Medium:  Bronze facsimile on granite base Signed in Plate
Size:        115cm
Price:      $18,000
Provenance: private collector purchased at an auction

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NOTES:
The famous Spirit of Ecstasy was created in 1911 by artist Charles Sykes modelled after a young woman who had bewitching beauty, intellect and esprit. Sykes drew a girl with arms outstretched, holding her flowing gown, and the figurine became known as 'The Spirit of Ecstasy', although she was originally called 'The Spirit of Speed' and also known as 'The Flying Lady' or 'The Silver Lady'. Designed by Charles Robinson Sykes turn out to be one of the most well known mascots in the world adorning Rolls-Royce cars since 1911.

Charles Sykes combined the world of Greek mythology and his commercial creations. But he was also devoted to the fine arts. Two commissions from John Montagu helped Charles apply his talents in this direction: he painted a triptych for Beaulieu parish church, and designed the bronze Madonna and Child still to be seen in a niche at the Montagu family's home, Palace House - formerly Beaulieu Abbey's Great Gatehouse. Legend maintains that until the Dissolution the niche contained a Golden Madonna. Few visitors to Beaulieu realize that the bronze figure there now was designed by the creator of The Spirit of Ecstasy.

Bronzes became one of Charles' specialities and eventually he achieved every sculptor's ambition by having his work exhibited at the Royal Academy. One of these was a figure entitled A Bacchante, shown at the RA and the Paris Salon. Jo Sykes who remembers seeing Eleanor Thornton posing in her father's studio on many oceasions, notices a strong resemblance between Bacchante's face and figure and that of Miss Thornton. She also identifies a Junoesque figure made about the same time as definitely being a bronze of Miss Thornton. Two examples of this have been traced. One belongs to Mrs. Hayter and was previously the property of Gordon Hayter's first wife, Rose Thornton, Eleanor's sister. It probably originally belonged to Eleanor herself, passing to Rose after Eleanor was drowned in 1915 when the ship on which she and John Montagu were travelling was torpedoed by a German U-boat. The other bronze of Elpanor belongs to the family of the late Joan Thornton, daughter of Eleanor and John Montagu. Bacchante and the Eleanor Thornton bronze are contemporary with two other Sykes bronzes with a fascinating history: The Sybarite (circa 1908) and Phryne. The Sybarite, for which Eleanor Thornton posed, depicted a long-haired naked woman, standing on a cushion. Because it failed to impress the arbiters of what was considered to be artistic good taste Charles cut her hair short, replaced the cushion with a round base, and renamed the figure Phryne. The only example we have been able to trace belongs to Cynthia Sheerman, daughter of the late Herbert anf Myra Barder, two friends of the Sykes family.