"Auto-Icon" of Jeremy Bentham
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.A secular reliquary and modern mummy, this "auto-icon," as Bentham called it, literally embodies its sitter: the clothed figure contains the skeleton of the pioneering Utilitarian philosopher. Bentham specified in his will that his body be dissected in the service of science, followed by this unusual form of preservation, drolly broadcasting his rejection of the afterlife and allowing him to "attend" meetings of his devoted disciples. After some failed efforts to preserve his head, it was replaced by this wax portrait by the French anatomical modeler Jacques Talrich.
Artwork Details
- Title: "Auto-Icon" of Jeremy Bentham
- Artist: Thomas Southwood Smith (British, 1788–1861)
- Artist: Jacques Talrich (French, 1790–1851)
- Date: 1832
- Culture: English
- Medium: Wax, human bones, human hair, wool, cotton and linen textiles, straw hat and wooden walking stick and chair,
- Dimensions: 53 15/16 × 24 7/16 × 34 5/8 in., 160 lb. (137 × 62 × 88 cm, 72.6 kg)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: UCL Culture
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art