An iconic dolphin sculpture by one of Britain’s most highly regarded artists has dived into my heart after being discovered in Derbyshire, and it’s destined to swim to auction glory, writes Charles Hanson.
This famous design, Boy with a Dolphin, is by self-taught sculptor David Wynne. If it looks familiar don’t be surprised. A full-size bronze version is a well-known London landmark. Unveiled nearly 50 years in 1975, the sculpture adorns the corner of Chelsea’s Albert Bridge and Embankment.
This silver version was found in a home near Derby a few days ago. Its destined to set the saleroom alight in Hansons’ September Fine Art Auction. It’s guided at £3,000-£5,000 but who knows where the hammer will fall. It’s special, very special.
Wynne’s immense talent gave Britain some of its most uplifting and popular landmarks. He had a passion for the natural world and, as Boy with a Dolphin shows, an ability to create something seemingly impossible, the appearance of movement in a stationary object. He captured the fluidity of a dolphin swimming through water with a boy holding on to its dorsal fin, as if hitching a ride with the sea creature.His depiction of a childhood adventure is not only magical, it is a feat of engineering genius.
Without the restraints of formal training, Wynne used a double cantilever structure incorporating the boy’s arm and tail of the dolphin to unwittingly create a masterpiece of engineering and design.
Of the piece Wynne famously said: “The boy is being shown that if you trust the world, the thrills and great happiness are yours… if one meets a dolphin in the sea, he is the genial host, you the honoured guest.”
The new find is a limited-edition sterling silver sculpture hallmarked by Mappin & Webb, London, 1980. Marked ‘David Wynne 87/250’, it was bought directly from the silverware manufacturers in 1980/81 and comes complete with original certificate and fitted case.
The boy holding onto the dorsal fin was modelled on the artist’s son Roland David Amadeus Wynne (1964-1999). Roland was nine years old in 1973 when the original bronze was conceived.
Wynne’s determination to convey the unbridled freedom of the boy and dolphin was achieved thanks to hours spent observing them at London’s Dolphinarium in the early 1970s and in the wild in California. The result was exceptional and demonstrates the ability of a man who forged his own path to create art that will be admired forever.
Wynne, OBE, had a formal background. He was born in Lyndhurst, Hampshire, the son of Commander Charles Edward Wynne and Millicent Wynne. He was educated at Stowe School, Buckinghamshire, served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and read Zoology at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Though encouraged to concentrate on his art, lecture halls were not for him. He shied away from formal training. He took up sculpture professionally in 1950 and held his first show in London in 1955. However, it was a commission from London County Council that really got him noticed. Asked to create a work at Crystal Palace Park, he chose Guy the Gorilla. For 31 years Guy, a western lowland gorilla brought from West Africa to London Zoo in 1947, was a star attraction. When the statue was unveiled in 1961 Wynne’s career was made. Guy the Gorilla became a Grade II listed structure in 2016.
But during Wynne’s long career, he died aged 88 in 2014, there were many notable works. In 1964 a bronze sculpture of The Beatles made waves. He produced Girl with a Dolphin, a bronze fountain at Tower Bridge London in 1973, and the beautifully ornate Queen Elizabeth Gate in London’s Hyde Park Corner.
Another London landmark is The Messenger, a bronze statue unveiled in 1981. It was commissioned by a business to convey communication. The project was four years in the making. Wynne crafted, ‘A tall wise horse that had never known a bridle, a magic horse if you like, poised, one foot pointing to the centre of the earth; head up, nostrils flared, about to whip round and plunge away. On his back a carefree boy, wild as the horse, calling out to his friends, who have forgotten that they too are heirs to his kingdom’.
Despite his talent there was a modesty to Wynne. He said, ‘I am celebrating the animal. I am not trying to make anything new. There is nothing new under the sun’.
Auction & Entries
The Boy with a Dolphin, found by Hansons’ silver consultant Victoria Sheppard, one of only 250 produced by Mappin & Webb after the original bronze, will be offered in Hansons Auctioneers’ September 26 Derbyshire Fine Art Auction.
Further entries invited including silver, jewellery, art and antiques.
To book a free valuation, including assessments with renowned Antiques Roadshow expert Adam Schoon at Hansons, Etwall, Derbyshire, on August 6, 10am-4pm, email [email protected] or call 01283 733988.
