John Watkins, “Truth and Falsehood”, 1880, after Alfred Stevens

John Watkins (1854[?]–1908)

“Truth and Falsehood”, 1880, after what the British Museum describes as the “Model of sculpture group for the Wellington Monument at St. Paul's Cathedral, London”, by Alfred Stevens (aka Alfred George Stevens) (1817–1875) (see this model at the V&A: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O127118/model-for-wellington-monument-truth-model-stevens-alfred-george/), showing “Truth seated on a bench, her foot on the chest of Falsehood, reclining below, wearing a mask, tearing out his double tongue” (see BM inv. no. 1881,0813.57), printed by Alfred Salmon (fl.1863–1894) and published in Paris in 1880 in the French art review, “L’Art.”

Etching with pale plate-tone printed on buff coloured laid paper.

Size: (sheet) 42 x 29.1cm; (plate) 32.3 x 22.5cm; (image borderline) 29.4 x 20.4cm.

Lettered in plate below the image borderline: (left) “Alfred Stevens sculp./ L' Art.”; (centre) “TRUTH AND FALSEHOOD./ Group in bronze for the Wellington Monument.”; (right) “John Watkins aqua f./ Imp. A. Salmon.”

Condition: a strong and faultless impression with generous margins in a pristine condition with no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, stains or signs of handling.

I am selling this large and visually arresting etching of the life-size plaster model of Alfred Stevens’ sculpture group in the collection of the V&A (inv. no. 321A-1878) showing an allegorical fight in which Truth pulls out the tongue of Falsehood—for those wondering about the swirling rhythms beneath the seated figure of Truth, this is the serpent’s tail of Falsehood—for AU$212 in total (currently US$137.04/ EUR129.98/ GBP108.57 at the time of posting this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries. Note that payment is in Australian dollars (AU$212) as this is my currency.

If you are interested in acquiring this superb etching in a museum quality pristine condition, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.