About the artwork

Strikingly tender larger-than-life figures in lead, signed ‘Charoux London 1936.' An exceptional one-of-a-kind piece, produced shortly after Charoux fled Austria.

From our Siegfried Charoux RA collection:

Year: 1936

Dimensions: H. 42cm W. 32cm D. 32cm

Medium: Lead

Condition: Excellent condition in relation to age

Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist by Francis and Tina Cooke, and passed down three generations.

Delivery: Collect from the shop or contact Cal to arrange specialist art handlers

About the artist

Siegfried Charoux RA (1896–1967) was a renowned Austrian and British sculptor, painter and caricaturist. Following the rise of Nazism, Charoux fled Austria in 1935 due to growing hostility towards his left-wing political views and his Jewish wife Margarethe. Settling in England, Charoux was interned on the Isle of Man in 1940 as a so-called ‘enemy alien,’ while being listed for execution on Hitler’s Black Book.

Charoux was released from internment with the intervention of Lord Astor and he continued a successful sculpting career. A British citizen since 1946, he became an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1949 and a full member (RA) in 1956. He was a lecturer at the RA Sculpture School and received numerous public commissions in Great Britain and Austria.

In 1951, he produced one of the most well-known Festival of Britain sculptures: an extraordinary monumental piece called The Islanders which was displayed on the South Bank. His sculpture Judge (1962) was installed in the Queen’s Court at the Royal Courts of Justice, where it remains to date.

After Charoux’s passing, his wife Margarethe was instrumental in relocating the contents of Charoux’s studio to the Langenzersdorf Museum, Austria where the Charoux Museum was opened in 1982.