An ornate piece of artwork created by a world-renowned sculptor has found a new home in the grounds of a spa hotel on the shores of Windermere.
The hand carved statue ‘Mr Valiant for Truth’, originally sculpted from French Limestone by Josefina De Vasconcellos, has been acquired by English Lakes Hotels and relocated to the gardens at Low Wood Bay Resort & Spa.
The sculpture had previously been in situ at Lakeside YMCA for the past 30 years. In a bid to find a new site for its installation, the statue has been secured by the hotel group to ensure it remains in the Lake District.
The catalyst behind the sculpture’s move is Josefina’s protégé, Cumbrian sculptor Shawn Williamson. Mr Valiant for Truth was completed in 1983 while Mr Willamson was working with De Vasconcellos.
The jaded white limestone sculpture had originally been earmarked as a memorial carving for Josefina’s late husband, the painter Delmar Banner.
Josefina had started the unfinished figure, over six feet high, at her studio in Little Langdale. She had ceased to work on it around 1970 but a new plan was hatched for its completion and location when Mr Williamson started working with her a decade or so later.
Shawn Williamson explains: “When Mr Valiant for Truth was moved to Lakeside in 1985, I was working for Josefina as an assistant sculptor. The plan was to hoist it up by crane and set it out over Windermere to realise her husband’s vision of the man that looked over the burning lake in John Bunyan’s book ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’.
“I feel privileged to have helped carry out some of the work on the statue under her direction at the time. It’s an incredible piece of art and I was just so pleased to be learning from her and working with hand tools in the traditional way. She has been a huge influence on my work.”
Having first moved to the Lake District during the second world war, Josefina’s strong connections with Cumbria have been a feature of her historic works. One of her last stone carvings, Escape To Light, is located on the coast at Haverigg. And her war memorial carving called ‘The Hand’ is at St Bees’ School. She lived much of her later life in the Langdale valley and Ambleside.
English Lakes Hotels Resorts & Venues executive chairman Simon Berry explains: “When we discovered that the search was on for a new installation site for Mr Valiant for Truth, we were determined to keep it here in the Lake District and give it a new home where it will be open to view for hotel guests and visitors to Low Wood Bay.
“My Late father was a close friend of Josefina and I know he would be very pleased that this important work has now found this new home.”
Josefina De Vasconcellos (1904-2005) first learned to carve at a stonemason’s yard in Manchester before winning a scholarship to London’s Royal Academy of Arts. She later studied in Paris under Antoine Bourdelle and also under the tutelage of Guido Calori and Libero Andreotti in Florence.
Her sculpture works have featured all over the world, including at the Royal Academy, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Paris Salon.
Her most internationally famous sculpture, Reconciliation, originally installed at Coventry Cathedral, has seen subsequent versions established in Hiroshima’s Peace Park, at the Reichstag, Berlin, and on the Stormont Estate in Belfast. She was awarded an MBE in 1985.
