Bronze Signed, dated 78 and inscribed S/P (aside from the edition of 10?) 30 x 48cm. (11 3/4 x 19in.) Provenance: Collection George H. Welham (a bequest in the artist's will) JLW Bird, London Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1993 Literature: Paul Mellon, A Retrospective Exhibition of Bronze Sculptures by John Skeaping RA (London: Arthur Ackermann & Son, Ltd., 1979). Illustration of another cast (no.9) in the limited edition catalogued numbered and signed by the artist. Born in South Woodford, Essex, Skeaping studied at Goldsmith's College, London, and later at the Royal Academy. In 1924 he won the British Prix de Rome and its scholarship to the British School at Rome. Skeaping was the first husband of the sculptress Barbara Hepworth, with whom he exhibited during the 1920s. He was a member of the London Group, and later worked for a period in Mexico. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1960. He latterly lived in Devon near the village of Chagford moving to the Camargue, France in 1959