Lot 311 , Dame Elisabeth Frink DBE RA (1930 - 1993) 'Rolling Horse'

§ Dame Elisabeth Frink DBE RA (1930 - 1993) 'Rolling Horse' 1982,
cast bronze with dark patina.
signed and numbered ‘Frink/6/6’ (underneath)
49.5cm wide, 241.cm high

Provenance: Purchased from Waddington Galleries, London,17th August, 1983,
thence private collection East Sussex.

Literature: Annette Ratuszniak (ed.), Elisabeth Frink, Catalogue Raisonné of Sculpture 1947-93, Lund Humphries, London, 2013, p.155, cat.no.FCR311 (col.ill., another cast)

Elisabeth Frink’s Rolling Horses are among her most visceral and animated equine sculptures. Rather than presenting the horse as noble or static, she captures it mid-motion — twisting, rolling, and thrusting against the ground — all muscle, tension, and elemental force.

Modelled with her characteristically rough, hand-worked surfaces, the bronzes retain the immediacy of clay and the marks of the artist’s touch, giving them a raw vitality that feels both ancient and modern.

These works exemplify Frink’s lifelong fascination with strength, vulnerability, and survival, transforming the familiar horse into something primal and mythic. In bronze, they possess a dark, enduring presence — sculptures that feel less observed than encountered.
£40,000-60,000