Dame Elisabeth Frink R.A. (British, 1930-1993)
The General
signed and numbered 'Frink/6/8' (on the base)
bronze with a black patina
39.7 cm. (15 5/8 in.) high
Conceived in 1980
Footnotes:
Provenance
With Terry Dintenfass, New York, where acquired by the present owner circa 1995
Private Collection, U.S.A.

Exhibited
Dorchester, Dorset County Museum, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings, 17 July-18 September 1982 (another cast)
New York, Terry Dintenfass Gallery, 1983 (another cast)
London, Royal Academy, Elisabeth Frink: Sculpture and Drawings 1952-84, 8 February-24 March 1985 (another cast)

Literature
Jill Willder (ed.), Elisabeth Frink, Sculpture: Catalogue Raisonné, 1984, Harpvale Press, Salisbury, pp.192-3, cat.no.258 (ill.b&w, another cast)
Barbara Gallati, 'Elisabeth Frink', Arts Magazine, New York, January 1984, pp.49-50
Annette Ratuszniak (ed.), Elisabeth Frink Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93, 2013, Lund Humphries, Farnham, p.147, cat.no.FRC292 (ill.b&w, another cast)

Elisabeth Frink is best known for her commitment to and celebration of the figurative at a time when many of her contemporaries moved towards the abstract. Of these, her focus was particularly on the male figure in many guises and her sensitive depiction of animals, most famously horses, and in The General we see a strong and positive rendering of both. Sitting upright and alert, the male figure of the General is poised for action, looking into the distance with a tangible measure of concern and responsibility. His horse appears perfectly trained, sensing the air with ears pricked back and head lifted, one foreleg raised and seemingly ready to gallop off at the first signal from his rider.

Earlier depictions by Frink of the male figure often showed less desirable masculine qualities, with a sense of brutality, conflict and strife, but as time went on her sculptures of men moved away from this and towards a more harmonized reality, and The General is one such piece. In conversation with Bryan Robertson in the early 1980s – when this piece was conceived – she commented: 'I think that my figures of men now say so much more about how a human feels than how he looks anatomically. I can sense in a man's body a combination of strength and vulnerability – not as weakness but as the capacity to survive through stoicism or passive resistance, to suffer or to feel.' (Bryan Robertson, 'Introduction and a Dialogue', in Elisabeth Frink Sculpture Catalogue Raisonné, Harpvale Books, Salisbury, 1984, p.37). There is a humanity to the figure of The General which is wonderfully balanced: despite his military standing and strong pose, his individual facial features tell of a personality behind this mettle. Riding without saddle or reins, he appears timeless and at one with his steed.

Frink began a series of sculptures on the subject of horse and rider in 1969 while living in France where her husband owned a vineyard, and the motif is seen as showing a new contentment in her work. Indeed, as Sarah Kent writes: 'For Frink, horse and rider are a unit personifying the most desirable masculine qualities. Between them they offer speed, resilience, intelligence, loyalty, affection, courage, sensitivity, beauty and free sensuality. At one extreme, her thugs and mercenaries epitomize the stunted macho personality, while at this idealized end of the spectrum, the horse and rider represent the fully-integrated and mature personality.' (Sarah Kent, 'A Bestiary For Our Time', in Elisabeth Frink Sculpture Catalogue Raisonné, Harpvale Books, Salisbury, 1984, p.67).

In The General we can see therefore the ultimate realisation of two of Frink's most favoured subjects, in harmony and with a deep and symbiotic bond between horse and rider. Idealized but individual, strong but empathetic, the present work brings together man and beast in a powerful and compelling unity.
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