Wydaje mi się, że ani jedna praca tego polskiego rzeźbiarza, mieszkającego i pracującego w wiktoriańskiej Anglii, nie została zarejestrowana na polskim rynku. Podaje zatem jego biografię z domu aukcyjnego oraz dodatkowy link: https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib5_1206733454

Dużo więcej informacji o artyście o dorobku rzeźbiarskim podaje Słownik Artystów Polskich. Ciekwe, że nazwisko artysta zmienil w Anglii z Gawłowski na Geflowski – prawdopodobnie by uprościć wymowę Anglikom.

Zabawną wzmiankę o artyście znalazłem w Przeglądzie Powszechnym z 1890 roku w artykule omawiającym Polaków w Anglii, na stronie 15:

Geflowski w rzeczywistości był niezwykle wziętym artystą w Anglii a jego dorobek doprawdę duży i obracał się ‘w dużym świecie’. W Polsce jest zupełnie nieznany. Stąd moja przyjemność przedstawienia jednej z małych jego prac.

Geflowski was born in Poland but settled in Liverpool in the 1850’s before setting up his own workshop as a sculptor and architectural carver. He became more well known in the 1870’s when he won a commission to produce a statue of the engineer and philanthropist Sir William Fairbairn from the much more well known sculptor, Thomas Woolner. The statue was larger than life-size and carved in marble for installation at Manchester Town Hall. He also produced other portrait sculpture such as a bust of Garibaldi (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), a statue of Queen Victoria, commissioned by the Chinese Community of Singapore to commemorate the jubilee, (unveiled in 1881); and a marble statue of Queen Victoria for Kingston, Jamaica which was commissioned for the Diamond Jubilee (unveiled on 22 June 1897).

Geflowski also worked as an ecclesiastical sculptor and won numerous commissions to work on altarpieces including a number by the important designer and architect George Gilbert Scott. His church sculpture included those at the chapel of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester (1860); the Coulston Chantry Chapel, St. Peter’s Cathedral, Lancaster (the chapel was founded in 1856, his work is currently undated but may have been carried out while he was living in Manchester or Liverpool); the carved stone reredos for the church of St. John the Baptist, Cirencester (1867-8 for George Gilbert Scott Junior); figure carving on the elaborate reredos for St. Laurence, Stroud (architect George Gilbert Scott, additional carving by Emanuel’s brother Maurice Geflowski, 1872); and an extensive series of carvings for All Soul’s Chapel, Oxford comprising some 36 statues of apostles, prelates and Lancastrian notables, and 82 smaller statuettes (October 1873-October 1875, architect Sir George Gilbert Scott). Scholars David Verey and Alan Brooks also attribute extensive architectural carving at Holy Trinity, Watermoor to Geflowski on behalf of George Gilbert Scott. However, this requires confirmation because the church was built between 1847-51, and so this might place Geflowski’s arrival in Britain earlier than previously recorded. 

Lot 95. EMANUEL EDWARD GEFLOWSKI (POLISH / BRITISH 1834-1898):  A LARGE BRONZE FIGURE OF A LABOURER; the male figure with a moustache and wearing a hat, his arms folded and seated on a large bucket of coal, on an integral canted base, dark brown – greenish patination, signed to the base ‘E.E. Gekoswki 1895’, 62cm high. Estimate 600-800 GBP. Chiswick Auctions. 12/05/18. Sold 750 GBP