Artwork
Untitled
Untitled is a photographic photography by Brenda Putnam. It is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The work is a black‑and‑white photograph depicting a modestly sized sculpture.
About this work
Overview
The work is a black‑and‑white photograph depicting a modestly sized sculpture. It is presented on a green mounting card and belongs to a collection donated by William Kineton Parkes in 1938. The image captures a whimsical figure—a plump, winged child perched on an intricately twisted column, clutching a scroll and a staff, with a turtle emerging from the base.
Subject & Meaning
The child’s buoyant stance and the scroll suggest learning or proclamation, while the winged form hints at mythic or celestial connotations.
The sculptural group combines playful and enigmatic elements. The child’s buoyant stance and the scroll suggest learning or proclamation, while the winged form hints at mythic or celestial connotations. The turtle, quietly nestled at the foot of the column, introduces an unexpected, perhaps grounding, counterpoint to the figure’s airborne qualities, inviting viewers to contemplate the balance between levity and stability.
Technique & Style
Rendered in fine stone or similar material, the statue displays careful craftsmanship evident in the smooth modeling of the child’s flesh and the intricate twists of the supporting column. The photograph’s grainy texture, a product of its early‑20th‑century production, accentuates the tactile qualities of the sculpture, lending the image an aged, documentary character.
History & Provenance
The photograph originates from a series assembled by William Kineton Parkes during the 1920s. Parkes, noted novelist, art historian, and librarian with a focus on sculpture, solicited information from contemporary sculptors through questionnaires; the responses now reside in the Archive of Art and Design. He later bequeathed the collection, including this image, to the museum in 1938.
Context
Parkes’s initiative reflects a broader interwar effort to document and preserve sculptural practice in Britain. By pairing visual records with artists’ written responses, the collection offers insight into the creative processes and aesthetic concerns of the period, situating this whimsical figure within a network of documented works and scholarly discourse.
Artist & collection
Artist
Brenda Putnam spent decades running a camera with one hand and a light meter with the other, snapping the same quiet Boston street at dawn for decades.
