A 27-cm bronze maquette of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Tavistock Square, London, will go under the hammer next Thursday in England with a guide estimate of £6,000–£8,000. The small model is believed to be the earliest complete vision of the work by Polish sculptor Fredda Brilliant, whose full-size statue has stood in the square since 1968.
Woolley & Wallis of Wiltshire say Brilliant first conceived a Gandhi memorial in 1949 but was not commissioned for the Tavistock Square piece until the early 1960s. She explored three poses — standing, walking and a seated cross-legged position — ultimately choosing the latter as a quieter, more intimate solution suited to the compact square. After deciding on that pose she produced the customary metal maquette; the example being sold is the first of two such models to appear at auction. A second maquette from the same series fetched £65,000 at auction in June 2019.
The Tavistock Square plinth was daubed with what police described as “racially aggravated” graffiti in September and was cleaned ahead of Gandhi Jayanti on October 2. The bronze memorial, created with backing from the India League, was unveiled partly as a nod to Gandhi’s time as a law student at nearby University College London. It shows Gandhi seated in meditation and bears the plinth inscription “Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948.”
Victor Fauvelle, a specialist at Woolley & Wallis, said the emergence of this first maquette from a private London collection is significant given Brilliant’s growing reputation and strong bidding for her Gandhi works, offering collectors a rare chance to acquire the piece that set one of her most recognised monuments in motion. Gandhi Jayanti, designated by the United Nations as the International Day of Non-Violence, is observed at the London memorial each October 2 with floral tributes and Gandhi’s favourite bhajans.
