A symbol of energy

SIR – In response to Dr Donal Lowry’s letter (November 25) about the history of George Frederic Watts’s sculpture, Physical Energy, the artist himself stated that the work was originally created as a public sculpture, “a symbol of that restless physical impulse to seek the still unachieved”.

It is an allegory, modelled by the artist without specific reference to any individual. It was at the request of the British government, rather than the intention of the artist, that the first bronze cast of the model travelled to Cape Town to form part of a memorial to Cecil Rhodes.

Another cast has been in Kensington Gardens since 1907 as a memorial to the artist. Its symbolism has been adopted and interpreted in many ways. To celebrate 200 years since Watts’s birth, Watts Gallery Trust has authorised the fourth cast of Physical Energy to reinstate the artist’s original vision, to capture the “embodiment of physical energy”. Alistair Burtenshaw

Director, Watts Gallery Compton, Surrey