Sigismundo Götze

Sigismund Christian Hubert Goetze (24 de octubre de 1866 – 24 de octubre de 1939) fue un pintor y filántropo inglés, nacido en Londres. ^{[ 1 ]}

Goetze era hijo de Rosina Hariet (de soltera Bentley; f. 1877) y James D. Goetze (f. 1911). ^{[ 2 ]} Su hermana Violet se casó con el político Alfred Mond, 1er Barón Melchett . ^{[ 3 ]} Se educó primero en la University College School , luego recibió una beca para estudiar en la Slade School of Fine Art . ^{[ 4 ]} Ingresó en las Escuelas de la Real Academia en 1885 y desde 1888 expuso regularmente en la Real Academia y en el Salón de París . ^{[ 1 ]} En 1907 se casó con Constance Schweich, la única hija y heredera de Leopold Schweich de París. ^{[ 5 ]}

En 1907, él y su esposa compraron Grove House , una villa en Regent's Park construida por Decimus Burton , en una subasta. Decoró la sala de música con escenas de las Metamorfosis de Ovidio ^{[ 6 ]} y realizó actividades filantrópicas en el jardín. ^{[ 7 ]} Se dice que sentía un cariño especial por Regent's Park y que reservó una suma de dinero, el Fondo Constance, para permitir donaciones de esculturas a parques de Londres como memorial a su esposa en caso de su fallecimiento. ^{[ 8 ]}

En 1898 pintó un mural para la Bolsa Real de Londres titulado "La Corona ofrecida a Ricardo III en el Castillo de Baynard".

Between 1912 and 1921, Goetze painted a mural scheme for the Foreign Office depicting the Origin, education, development, expansion and triumph of the British Empire.^[1][3] Goetze had offered to create the works free of charge.^[9] They were executed in the spirit fresco technique on canvas and then attached to the walls. Goetze undertook a European tour to study frescoes in France and elsewhere in preparation. He was especially influenced by the work of Puvis de Chavannes and Frederic Leighton.^[9] The original plans were altered following the war to culminate in the international Covenant of the League of Nations, leading to the inclusion of emblematic figures of France, America and other nations.^[9]

The canvases were installed against the wishes of the Foreign Secretary, Lord Curzon, who objected to them, supposedly because of their display of naked flesh.^[3] It has been suggested that it was the political content of the images that really offended Curzon, as they ran counter to his vision of the Empire.^[9]

The antisemitic writer Harold Sherwood Spencer became obsessed with the idea that Goetze's paintings were part of a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the British Empire. In 1922 Spencer attacked Goetze in the journal Plain English, calling him "a foreign Jew" who was "an alien in Common Law and a perpetual enemy of this Christian empire". Goetze sued Spencer for libel. Spencer was convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment.^[10]

In 1932 Goetze and Constance donated the eastern gates for the gardens of the Inner Circle of Regent's Park, in 1938 they donated the southern or jubilee gates to be installed for the re-opening of the gardens as Queen Mary's Gardens in 1939.^[11]

Following the death of his friend, sculptor Sir Alfred Gilbert, in 1934 Goetze assisted the National Art Collections Fund in acquiring Gilbert's collection and dispersing it to various public collections.^[1]

Goetze y Constance también donaron dos esculturas de bronce de Albert Hodge , El arco perdido (1910) ^{[ 12 ]} y Un poderoso cazador (1913), ^{[ 13 ]} que probablemente fueron encargadas para Grove House. ^{[ 14 ]}

Tras su muerte en 1939, Constance realizó varias donaciones a diversos museos, entre ellas: un manuscrito del siglo XV de Pseudo-Agustín, que actualmente forma parte de la Colección Henry Davis de la Biblioteca Británica , y una serie de esculturas religiosas al Museo Fitzwilliam . ^{[ 5 ]}

• Ward-Jackson, Philip (2011), Public Sculpture of Historic Westminster: Volume 1, Public Sculpture of Britain, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press