Fine Art M.S. Rau | Sigmund Freud By Oscar Nemon

Oscar Nemon
1906 – 1985 | Croatian

Sigmund Freud

Signed “Nemon”
Bronze Resin

This Original Bronze Sigmund Freud, The Father Of Psychoanalysis, Was Crafted By Renowned Croatian Sculptor Oscar Nemon. In 1931, Nemon Was Commissioned To Sculpt Freud For His 75Th Birthday. After Nemon Initially Sketched A Skeptical Freud In Pencil, He Returned The Following Day With A Preliminary Rendering In Clay, Effectively Convincing Freud Of His Skill. Nemon Sought To Capture Freud’S Physical Likeness And Contemplative Inner World, Linking The Famed Psychoanalyst’S Public Persona With The Humanity Of The Man Behind The Revered Name.

Freud Was Very Pleased With The Final Result, Which Was Produced In Carved Wood, Bronze And Plaster. In Fact, Freud Wrote In His Diary Of The Initial 1931 Nemon Sculpture, “The Head, Which The Gaunt, Goatee-Beard Artist Has Fashioned From The Dirt — Like The Good Lord —Is Very Good And An Astonishingly Life-Like Impression Of Me.” Freud Chose To Keep The Wood Carving For His Own Personal Collection And It Is Now On Display In The Freud Museum In Hampstead.

Oscar Nemon Was Born To A Close Jewish Family In Osijek, A Bustling City In Eastern Croatia. Already A Burgeoning Artist, Shortly After He Arrived In Vienna In The Mid-1920S, He Met Sigmund Freud And Made Several Sculptures Of The Psychologist And His Dog, Topsy. Nemon Enrolled At The Académie Royale Des Beaux-Arts In Brussels In 1925, Where He Won A Gold Medal For His Sculpture. He Remained In Brussels, Sharing A Home With René Magritte, Until The Outset Of World War Ii In 1939 When He Fled To England. Nemon Would Go On To Make A Number Of Busts Of High-Profile Figures, Including Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth Ii, Prince Phillip, Harry S Truman, Margaret Thatcher And More. Many Of His Sculptures Are Recognizable For Their Use Of Bronze Resin, Often Called “Cold Cast Bronze,” Which Is Created With A Mixture Of Bronze Powder And Epoxy Or Other Resin.

Conceived 1931

13 3/4″ High X 5 3/4” Wide X 7 3/4“ Deep