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Lot Essay
‘His love of drawing animals and birds was all-consuming. He remembers constantly observing what he saw around him, seized with a growing conviction that his future life’s work would somehow be involved with the natural world’. – David Elliott
David Wynne was a self-taught artist who established his studio on Campden Hill, Holland Park in the early 1950s. He is recognised for his portraits of Her Majesty the Queen, Guy the Gorilla, Cresta Rider (the six-foot foot iconic sculpture in Saint Moritz, a maquette of which was sold in Christie's, South Kensington, 14 July 2011 for £109,250), and his most important royal project: the central section of the Queen Elizabeth gate installed at Hyde Park Corner in commemoration of the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday in 1990.
One of the most iconic and monumental of Wynne’s sculptures is the graceful Boy with a Dolphin (1974) which is situated on the Chelsea side of Albert Bridge (a maquette of which was sold in Christie's, South Kensington, 9 April 2019 for £212,500). First unveiled in October 1975, the concept for Boy with a Dolphin follows an earlier sculpture, Girl with a Dolphin, outside the Guoman Tower Hotel near St Katherine’s Dock, London. Cast ten years later, the present work perfectly encapsulates Wynne’s continued development of the these two sculptures. Here, Wynne has mastered the complexity of the construction: the structure projects into the air in an apparent defiance of gravity, and the forms are embued with a great sense of movement and grace: the dolphin and the girl held in perfect balance.
Wynne’s passion for celebrating the living form is epitomised in the strong, beautiful sweeping form of Girl with a Dolphin II. The artist had a great belief in celebrating living creatures, having studied Zoology at Cambridge. Wynne's 'love of drawing animals and birds was all-consuming. He remembers constantly observing what he saw around him, seized with a growing conviction that his future life’s work would somehow be involved with the natural world' (D. Elliott, Boy with a Dolphin: The Life and Work of David Wynne, London, 2010, p. 15). Wynne did not believe that a photograph sufficed for his evocations of naturalistic forms and indeed whilst working on his dolphin sculptures, he spent hours under water watching the animal’s movements in California, and in the Dolphinarium, then in London's Oxford Street.
We are very grateful to Nicola Bennett for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
David Wynne was a self-taught artist who established his studio on Campden Hill, Holland Park in the early 1950s. He is recognised for his portraits of Her Majesty the Queen, Guy the Gorilla, Cresta Rider (the six-foot foot iconic sculpture in Saint Moritz, a maquette of which was sold in Christie's, South Kensington, 14 July 2011 for £109,250), and his most important royal project: the central section of the Queen Elizabeth gate installed at Hyde Park Corner in commemoration of the Queen Mother’s 90th birthday in 1990.
One of the most iconic and monumental of Wynne’s sculptures is the graceful Boy with a Dolphin (1974) which is situated on the Chelsea side of Albert Bridge (a maquette of which was sold in Christie's, South Kensington, 9 April 2019 for £212,500). First unveiled in October 1975, the concept for Boy with a Dolphin follows an earlier sculpture, Girl with a Dolphin, outside the Guoman Tower Hotel near St Katherine’s Dock, London. Cast ten years later, the present work perfectly encapsulates Wynne’s continued development of the these two sculptures. Here, Wynne has mastered the complexity of the construction: the structure projects into the air in an apparent defiance of gravity, and the forms are embued with a great sense of movement and grace: the dolphin and the girl held in perfect balance.
Wynne’s passion for celebrating the living form is epitomised in the strong, beautiful sweeping form of Girl with a Dolphin II. The artist had a great belief in celebrating living creatures, having studied Zoology at Cambridge. Wynne's 'love of drawing animals and birds was all-consuming. He remembers constantly observing what he saw around him, seized with a growing conviction that his future life’s work would somehow be involved with the natural world' (D. Elliott, Boy with a Dolphin: The Life and Work of David Wynne, London, 2010, p. 15). Wynne did not believe that a photograph sufficed for his evocations of naturalistic forms and indeed whilst working on his dolphin sculptures, he spent hours under water watching the animal’s movements in California, and in the Dolphinarium, then in London's Oxford Street.
We are very grateful to Nicola Bennett for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.