COPELAND; AFTER WILLIAM THEED (1804-1891); A PARIAN FIGURE GROUP OF THE PRODIGAL’S RETURN AND ANOTHER GROUP (2)

The reverse impressed ‘OPUS. W. THEED SculpT. 1850, public May 1 1851’, damages, 51.5cm high; Together with another Copeland parian figure group of Christ The Teacher and Mary Magdalene’, impressed COPELAND to the reverse, 50.5cm high

The larger original marble by William Theed of The Prodigal’s Return was exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition and published in the Descriptive Catalogue at the exhibition. Models were replicated on a domestic scale in imitation marble or ‘parian’ and available through the Art Union. See Richard Dennis ‘The Parian Phenomenon’, page 13, fig. 7.