Birds Erect, 1914 (posthumous cast, undated)

This is Gaudier-Brzeska’s last large-scale sculpture, completed just before he left England to join the French army. It is also his most abstract work; without the aid of the title, it would be difficult to recognise the subject. Gaudier was influenced by contemporary Cubist sculptors, in particular Archipenko and Lipchitz. Unlike painting, which aimed at condensing different perspectives into a single image, Cubist sculpture was concerned primarily with abstracted and boldly geometrical forms.

Despite the solidity and weight of Birds Erect, there is a strong sense of upward movement, suggested by the long rectangular shapes which create a vertical pull. Jim described it as having ‘the vertiginous feeling of birds nested on a cliff’s edge’.