The Offerings of War
The Offerings of War is a bronze Equestrian statue by Gilbert Bayes commissioned for the entrance of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Discover the Life and Work of Gilbert Bayes
The Gilbert Bayes Trust was founded to advance the education of the public in the knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the works of art, in particular the sculptures, of Gilbert Bayes.
Gilbert Bayes was an esteemed and prolific British sculptor whose long career spanned the Arts & Crafts era, the New Sculpture Movement, and the Art Deco period. His work ranged from small scale medals and applied arts to monumental statues and architectural panels. He used a rich variety of materials and techniques including bronze, stone and marble and embraced new challenges with concrete, artificial stone, and ceramics.
Blending colour and form was always an important aspect of Gilbert’s sculpture and he used enamels and mosaic in the early years and glazed polychrome stoneware in the 1920s. One of Gilbert’s best-known public works is the Queen of Time clock combining bronze and ceramics on the façade of Selfridge’s department store in Oxford Street, London. Bayes was responsible for more public sculpture than any other artist working in Britain in the early 20th century yet he was equally successful in his memorial work for churches and his decorative designs for domestic settings.
Contemporary critics referred to his popular subject matter from fantasy and legend including his enchantment with medieval chivalry. Shaw Sparrow in The Studio of 1902 detected “A certain feeling of artistic gaiety and lightness of touch, a free handling of romantic and lyrical ideas, decorative animation. Bayes’ work is certainly never dull, it never bores you.” This held true throughout his career which culminated in an exciting community art project featuring fairy tales and nursery rhymes for St. Pancras House Improvement Society in the 1930s.
