DAVID WYNNE SCULPTURES
THE SCULPTURE OF DAVID WYNNE (1926 - 2014)
Born in Lyndhurst, Hampshire, in 1926, he was educated at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire. After serving in the Royal Navy during World War II, he read zoology at Trinity College, Cambridge - a background that later influenced his approach to sculpture, especially in capturing animal movement and form.
Although he never attended formal art school, Wynne took up sculpture professionally in around 1950 and quickly gained recognition, going on the receive major public commissions throughout Britain and abroad.
David Wynne married Gillian Grant in 1959 and they had two sons; one of them, Roly, later became the model for Wynne’s Boy with a Dolphin (1974) sculpture, one of London’s most beloved public art works. It can be found on the Chelsea side of Albert Bridge .....
A memorial inscription was added to the plinth in 1999 after Roly, aged 35, committed suicide.
There are also three casts of Boy with Dolphin in the United States.
A related and earlier work is Girl with a Dolphin (1973), a dynamic bronze sculpture near St
Katharine’s Dock close to Tower Bridge ....
David Wynne died in 2014 without divulging who had modelled for Girl with a Dolphin. But, in November 2023, Virginia Wade revealed she was the naked model, although the face of the girl was obviously not hers. Wynne had also sculpted a bust of the 1977 Wimbledon champion in 1972 - but no-one made the connection. It can be seen in the National Portrait Gallery .....
The hands and head were moulded and cast as separate pieces. Beecham was one of Britain's most influential conductors. He founded the Philharmonic Orchestra in 1932 and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1946.
Guy the Gorilla was a major attraction at London Zoo from 1947 until his death in 1978 .... 
Wynne's Guy the Gorilla in black marble was created in 1961. It stands in Crystal Palace Park, South London. As with his human subjects, Wynne spent a lot of time in the company of the great ape. He would always make sketches to work from, rather than taking photographs. Now Grade II-listed, this work was his first major commission and reflects his lifelong fascination with animals.
The Messenger (1982) stands outside Quadrant House in Sutton ....
The horse and rider portrayed in this life size bronze are actually separate pieces. Before starting work, Wynne travelled to Italy to draw inspiration from masterpieces of the past, notably the Horses of St Mark in Venice. He also spent time studying horses at the Milla Lauquen Arabian Stud near Norwich.
Girl with Doves is another elegant David Wynne creation ....
But you'll have to view it from afar as it stands in the centre of Cadogan Square Gardens, a private space accessible for residents only. Still, you can get your own key for the garden by simply buying a flat in the square - presuming you have a spare £5 million.
Leaping Salmon (1980), in stainless steel, can be found in Kingston. Three salmon is the ancient insignia of Kingston-upon-Thames, dating back to the three fisheries catalogued in the Domesday Book (1068).
Wynne spent many wet hours in Galway studying salmon leaping.
In 1984, Wynne’s three-quarter-life-size statue
of Fred Perry was unveiled at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet
Club in Wimbledon. At that time, Perry was still the last British man to
win Wimbledon; it would be decades before another - Andy Murray - achieved that feat.
Wynne was also commissioned for the Lion and Unicorn centrepiece of the Elizabeth Gate in Hyde Park, a commemoration of the Queen Mother's 90th birthday. The
gate and its decorative elements drew mixed reactions from critics.
The lion represents England and the unicorn Scotland. The stainless steel and bronze gates, railings and lights were designed and made by Giusseppe Lund. More about this later.
So far, the only public statue of King Charles III in London is in the Guildhall Art Gallery .....
.... Wynne was originally asked to make an accurate model of Charles's head to check the fit of the crown for his 1969 Investiture as Prince of Wales. Afterwards, the royal sittings were extended so this bronze portrait could be made - together with a jewelled miniature version in gold (location unknown). Around the same time Queen Elizabeth II also sat for Wynne, but the whereabouts of that bust is also unknown.
In 1964, Wynne was keen to model the Beatles. It was the height of Beatlemania and they were still touring - so initially reluctant. But, in Paris, starting with Ringo, he persuaded them to sit for him. This was the only occasion the Beatles agreed to sit for a sculptor.
Back in England, he cast the moulds into bronze and welded the Four Heads together in this vertical arrangement. A limited edition of twelve casts, 36 inches high, were made and all were quickly sold to private collectors, possibly the Beatles themselves. Some limited edition individual heads were also snapped up. I wonder if Vladimir Putin has one. He was once said to be a big Beatles fan. But maybe his enthusiasm waned after John Lennon's Give Peace A Chance.
Wynne gave his reasons for wanting to immortalise the Fab Four: "They are of more value than any political party or Establishment thing. They tell you to enjoy yourself. They stand for free expression, and an end to all things phoney."
He subsequently introduced the Beatles to one of his earlier subjects - the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation.
It seems no cast of Four Heads is on public display anywhere. However, Wynne did make a small model of the band performing in Paris - and that can be seen in the Wynne Collection at Stowe House.
The Wynne Collection
Stowe House is where David Wynne went to school. It is home to the Wynne Collection, a gallery of his work, mostly loaned to the school by the Wynne Trust.
The Beatles (2010) is a larger version of the model he made of them performing at the Olympia Theatre in Paris in 1964. Shouldn't John and George be the other way round? Pedantic, me? The original miniature is also here, arranged correctly - accompanied by Yehudi Menuhin on violin .....
Coincidentally, the Beatles actually played at Stowe School in 1963.
Apart from full-sized David Wynne portrait sculptures, the gallery also has on display many of the preliminary sculptures (maquettes) he made of his subjects ....
The maquette for one of David Wynne's early works - Christ on an Ass (1954) - is in the background.
David Wynne, self-portrait (2003) Gilli Walking (1991)
Gilli, daughter of writer Joan Grant, was David's wife for 31 years. She died of cancer in 1990. He made this statue in memory of her.
In 1965, Joan Baez was in London with Bob Dylan, playing the Royal Albert Hall. Finding herself ostracised from Dylan's entourage - and with time on her hands - she agreed to sit for her sculpture.
Gaia or Kneeling Girl (1980) Goddess of the Woods (1991)
Wynne later made a larger version of Gaia from a piece of multi-coloured marble given to him by George Harrison. It can be found on Tresco in the Isles of Scilly. In 1990, after the then Prince and Princess of Wales had visited Tresco, they asked Wynne to make them a similar sculpture - to celebrate Diana's 30th birthday - for their Highgrove garden. Goddess of the Woods is the maquette for that statue.
Above left, about the size of a small bear, is the bronze maquette for the 26-tonne Grizzly Bear (above, right) commissioned by PepsiCo. The massive bear, in Belgian fossil marble, stands in PepsiCo's sculpture park in New York State. Standing four metres tall, it would not fit in Wynne's studio. So, with the help of two stone masons, he carved it in a quarry in Cornwall, taking nine months to complete. More bronze maquettes were also commissioned by the company to send as gifts to their corporate clients.
Charging Elephant (1991) Kudu (1991)
These are just two of numerous animal sculptures he made following a visit to Botswana.
Wynne used the Kudu as the model for the unicorn in his Queen Mother's Gate commission.
..... the wooden template for his painted cast iron centrepiece is on display in the gallery.
Above is the plaster prototype of the 50p coin modelled by him in 1973 to commemorate the entry of the UK into the European Economic Community. The model has seven life size clasped hands to represent the nine members of the EEC at the time. It was mechanically reduced and minted by the Royal Mint. He also designed the Queen's head on the flipside of the coin.
Legacy
Sir David Wynne died in 2014, aged 88. The record price for one of his creations currently stands at £353,000, paid for a 48-inch (122cm) Boy with a Dolphin, sold at Christie's in London in 2017. But market values aside, his greatest legacy will always be his exuberant, free-for-all public artworks, scattered around the world.
That legacy is perhaps best appreciated at Stowe House, which continues to operate as an independent school. The house is therefore best visited at weekends or during school holidays. Admission to the Wynne Collection costs less than a tenner and includes access to other parts of the house, restored to their early-19th-century heyday - making it, all things considered, a genuine Wynne-win day out (sorry).
In the school library there's a reminder of life before Wikipedia ....
..... and also, thanks to David Wynne, a reminder of Shergar, the great racehorse that was kidnapped (or should that be rustled) by the IRA, never to be seen again .....
North Hall Blue Drawing Room
State Music Room State Dining Room
Marble Saloon
The stunning centrepiece of Stowe House, is based on the Pantheon in Rome. The floor tiles are actually the only part of the room still made of marble. Most of the rest, including all the statues and reliefs, have been restored using plaster.
NB ....
Stowe House is not to be confused with Stowe Gardens which is adjacent and has a separate entrance.
Stowe Gardens as seen from Stowe House
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