The Bull at Foot of Downshire Field Alton Estate

The Bull at the foot of Downshire Field, Alton Estate, is a sculpture created in 1961 by Robert Clatworthy. This piece is a version of a plaster figure from 1959, commissioned by the London County Council at the request of A W Cleeve Barr, one of the main architects involved in the Alton Estate. The sculpture is made of bronze and measures ten feet in length. It depicts a shaggy, expressionistic figure of a bull that appears to be about to turn its head, presenting a heroic yet friendly image that has become a beloved centerpiece of the LCC's flagship Alton West development. Clatworthy specialized in animal subjects and had previously exhibited a series of smaller equine and bull sculptures at the Hanover Gallery in 1957. The shaggy expressionism of the Bull captures a moment of movement, and Clatworthy noted that in much of his work, viewers can see different images of the same figure as the light changes or as they move around the sculpture.