Marion

Location

Country: Croatia
City: Zagreb
Place: British Embassy

The subject of 'Marion' was a neighbour of Nemon's in Boars Hill, Oxford, where he settled and established a studio in 1941. The woman's profile is modelled with strong lines, her face contrasting with the unusual blue patination of her hair and the background. Although a depiction of a real woman, the portrait also expresses the general sense of optimism and hope felt by Nemon in the later 1940s after escaping Nazi persecution in Europe.

Oscar Nemon was born in Osijek, in modern Croatia. He demonstrated an early talent for drawing and devoted himself to sculpture from his mid teens. After working for a year at his uncle's bronze foundry in Vienna in the early 1920s, he studied in Paris and at the Académie Royale des Beaux Arts in Brussels. He moved to England before the outbreak of the Second World War and settled in Oxford, developing a reputation as a leading sculptor and receiving commissions from notable figures. His reliefs of the 1940s and 1950s reveal a more personal, intimate side to his work.

Oscar Nemon was born in Osijek (today in Croatia), and began modelling in clay at the age of 14, after which he devoted himself to sculpture. In 1923 he lived in Vienna where he cast works at his uncle’s bronze foundry. He studied in Paris and at the Académie Royale des Beaux Arts, Brussels, and exhibited sculptures of notable figures in the 1930s. After moving to England, he settled in Oxford, and held his first exhibition in London in 1942. He became a British citizen, and received commissions for portraits of the Queen, Harold MacMillan, Sigmund Freud and other important 20th century figures. Nemon continued to work up to his death in 1985, and today many of his works can still be seen at his house and studio in Oxford.

Places

Subjects

female portrait, woman

Materials & Techniques

bronze, bronze sculpture, coloured

Artist

Oscar Nemon (1906 - 1985)

Title

Marion

Edition

1/12

Date

plaster c1947, cast 2003

Medium

Coloured bronze relief

Dimensions

height: 37.50 cm, depth: 2.50 cm, width: 35.50 cm

Acquisition

Presented by Alice Nemon Stuart, March 2004

Inscription

r edge: © EST. OF NEMON 2003 1/12

Provenance

Alice Nemon Stuart (daughter-in-law of artist)

GAC number

17862