Lot 38: Ivor Roberts-Jones, R.A. (1913-1996)

Yehudi Menuhin; portrait head
plaster
10 5/8 in. (27.0 cm.) high, excluding base
Conceived in 1967. The present work is an original unique studio plaster.

London, Royal Academy, Bicentenary Exhibition, 1968, catalogue not traced.

P. Cannon-Brookes, Ivor Roberts-Jones, London, 1983, p. 69.

Peter Cannon-Brookes comments; 'Kyffin Williams was behind the commission from Highgate School for a head of Yehudi Menuhin to commemorate his rehearsals there. Despite an earlier promise, Yehudi Menuhin was unable to spare the time to sit for Ivor Roberts-Jones and the modelling was done from drawings only. Not the easiest of 'sitters', the head was executed from 1967 and it was first exhibited at the time of the Bicentenary Exhibition of the Royal Academy, in 1968. The National Museum of Wales purchased its cast in 1973'. (Ivor Roberts-Jones, London, 1983, p. 69). The sculpture is one of Roberts-Jones' most incisive and sculptural portraits, containing the inwardness that he sought as well as a birdlike quality often seen in his work. Bronze casts of this work are in the Collections of the National Portrait Gallery, London, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff and Kyffin Williams (see P. Cannon-Brookes, Ivor Roberts-Jones, London, p. 77, no. 76, illustrated).

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