Art: Old Victory

In Edwardian England 25 years ago a famed sculptor swung a hammer into a stone face of the Duke of Clarence and exiled himself for 18 years in Bruges, the Dead City of Belgium. Last week the same man, old and long forgotten, bowed low over King George's hand, stood before Queen Mary in silence, then flung out his thin arms in a Baroque gesture of gratitude.

Alfred Gilbert, 78, could say that he had never changed his mind for anybody. In 1893 he was Britain's most fashionable sculptor when he began a...

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