David Wynne

In his early twenties David Wynne was encouraged by the sculptor Jacob Epstein and the resulting portrait busts from the late fifties and early sixties show this influence. The earliest of these was that of Sir Thomas Beecham in 1955 (Royal Festival Hall, London). Many of Wynne's portraits are of personalities involved in the performing arts. Two years after the present work was completed, his bust of Sir John Gielgud was unveiled at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford. Lord Barbourne's bust is dated 1961 the year after he produced Sink the Bismark! (1960), the classic wartime film, a production in which he was to use the support of his father-in-law to obtain the co-operation of the Admiralty. In due course the sculptor was to make the posthumous bust of Lord Mountbatten for the RAC Club as well as work for the Prince of Wales.