As previously noted Vyse had exhibited a figurative group The Kiss (RA1857) at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1911. Again in 1913, he exhibited a bronze version of The Kiss (RA1992) at the R A (Fig. 20). The bronze, signed Charles Vyse on the back is undated. In 1911, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia, purchased an edition. 11 The author, Herbert H Stansfield published a monochrome photograph of The Kiss in his book Sculpture and the Sculptors Art. (1916) He refers to Charles Vyse, ‘one of the coming men of sculpture.’12 It would seem that Vyse had arrived at the threshold of a brilliant career as a sculptor. In November 1916, a popular magazine The Hippodrome reported that Mr Charles Vyse, a young sculptor whose …show more content…
The postcard view shows the facade of the mews stables (Fig. 22) as it was during Vyse and Parr’s tenancy. The luxury of having his own studio was a boon to Vyse, while establishing himself as a fine-art sculptor. However, he was having little success in this venture, and few sculptural commissions came his way. To augment his sparse income he took on small architectural commissions. Furthermore, his regular exhibiting at the Royal Academy seems not improve his standing in the art world. At the age of thirty seven, Charles Vyse had come to a crossroads. He had a wife and two small children to support, John Anthony Vyse (born 1915) and Elizabeth Bullin Vyse (born 1918). It is likely that the birth of his second child, known in the family as Billa, spurred him on to becoming more provident. It was in 1919, Vyse, ‘master potter,’ metaphorically returned to his roots. He had a studio and a large amount of clay, but lacked the necessary a kiln to fire the ware. Undeterred, he began to produce commercially ceramic figures, the previously noted Good Night (Fig. 15) and a second he called Lady with a Fan (Fig. 23). The latter is interesting only when viewed in relation to Vyse’s later works, and he made no other models of this genre. The design emulated the china figurines made by at Doultons. He had modelled the Lady with a