Lot 118: Sean Crampton 1918-1999 The Batchelors of Avebury

Sean Crampton 1918-1999 The Batchelors of Avebury Bronze Signed and numbered 5 of 6 96cm.; 37¾ins wide Sean Crampton was born in Manchester, the eldest son of an architect, and studied at the School of Art in Birmingham, then the Central School of Art before working on his own and at Fernand Leger's studio in Paris. During the War he saw action in the Western Desert and Sicily, and was awarded the Military Cross and the George Medal. The years (1946-50) that he spent as Professeur de Sculpture at the Anglo- French Art Centre in St John's Wood, London, he would subsequently look back upon as being influential in his development as a sculptor; they witnessed his increasing technical mastery and creative adventurousness, which went hand in hand with his own inspirations - his love of mythology, history (both human and natural) and the deeper world of the spirit. Besides exhibiting at the Royal Academy and other institutional galleries, Crampton held 17 one- man shows in the West End over a period of n arly four decades. Works on a more heroic scale were commissioned by civic organisations, colleges (two at Cambridge), churches and convents. He was particularly gratified when he was asked to create the war memorial for his own regiment. Several of his most notable works earned him awards from the Civic Trust and from the Royal Society of British Sculptors. He had been a member of that body since 1953 and served as its president for five years (1966- 71).