Sheila Mitchell; Leading sculptor in the figurative tradition
Hyfler/Rosner
Leading sculptor in the figurative tradition
The Independent
17 May 2006
Peter Cannon-Brookes
Her work:
http://www.surreycountyarts.org.uk/openstudios/Images/Guildford/Shelia%20Mitchell.jpg
http://www.rbs.org.uk/cgibin/rbs_gallery.cgi?userid=23&letter=M&imageid=3&display=main
In a richly varied artistic career stretching over 60 years,
Sheila Mitchell played a distinguished role in the
preservation of the figurative tradition of British
sculpture, during decades of official indifference or
downright hostility. This she achieved by example through
her own work, and by her dedication to the Royal Society of
British Sculptors and, above all, the Society of Portrait
Sculptors.
Born in Farnham, Surrey in 1926, she showed early talent and
exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1945, aged 18, before
beginning her formal studies at the Farnham School of Art,
under Charles Vyse. Moving on to the Guildford School of
Art, Mitchell studied for a year under Willi Soukop before
she was accepted for the Royal College of Art (1948-51).
Studying there under John Skeaping, Frank Dobson and Edward
Folkard, she received a thorough grounding in the figurative
tradition stemming from the New Sculpture, although she was
also exposed concurrently to the more radical approaches of
Henry Moore and Sir Jacob Epstein.
A fellow student at both Farnham and the RCA was the painter
Charles Bone and in 1951 they were married and set up house
in Winters Farm, at Puttenham in Surrey, where the former
farm buildings were to provide them with studios for the
next 55 years.
While studying at the RCA, Mitchell continued to have work
exhibited at the Royal Academy, but from 1964 she became
most closely associated with the Society of Portrait
Sculptors, exhibiting with them almost every year until the
society went into a quiescent state in 1984.
The society was founded in 1953, at a time when the euphoria
of the Coronation and a heightened sense of national
identity was being challenged by the Modern Movement and the
internationalism of abstract art. The portrait sculptors
banded together to preserve their discipline, and their
annual exhibitions became an increasingly important means by
which portrait sculpture could retain its vitality.
An important early patron of both the society and Sheila
Mitchell was the musician Arthur Davison and her lively
portrait head of Davison was one of the highlights of the
society's 1967 Annual Exhibition. In all, she modelled over
150 portraits, varying the surface treatment to reflect the
characters of the sitters. Amongst the most distinguished is
the bust of Sir George Edwards OM, commissioned by British
Aerospace for Surrey University.
Sheila Mitchell was elected President of the Society of
Portrait Sculptors in 1978. With its deteriorating financial
position, the society's use of the Mall Galleries in London
for the Annual Exhibitions became increasingly difficult.
During her presidency (1978-83) Mitchell tried to forge a
closer relationship with the Royal Society of British
Sculptors, of which she was already a fellow, but without
success, and faced with the prospect of being absorbed into
it, the Society of Portrait Sculptors decided in 1984 to go
into voluntary hibernation. This lasted until 1996 when
Franta Belsky, Anthony Stones, David Houchin and others
revitalised the organisation. Mitchell immediately returned
to the fold, exhibiting every year, but in the meantime she
had greatly consolidated her artistic career.
Her sitters for portraits in bronze included the Duchess of
Kent (1982) commissioned for HM Forces, Sebastian Coe,
commissioned for the Sports Aid Foundation, Sir Edward
Tuckwell, commissioned for the Barber-Surgeons' Hall, and
Sir Frederick Wood commissioned by Croda International.
Alongside, she was receiving commissions for monumental
bronze sculpture in Mallorca as well as for patrons in the
United Kingdom, such as her pietą for Wintershall Chapel,
separate from her flourishing practice as a leading portrait
sculptor.
A recurring theme was that of the Mother and Child. Her
student thesis had focused on this subject and she later
explored it through a number of compositions including a
large Madonna and Child group she created for Walsingham in
Norfolk and that for the chapel of the Royal Surrey
Hospital.
A sensitive sculptor of small figures, Mitchell modelled
small bronzes such as the equestrian statuette of William
Cobbett exhibited in 2004, and ceramic figures for the Royal
Worcester Company.
The partnership between Mitchell and her husband, Charles
Bone, extended to joint exhibitions in Europe and the United
States of America, and she supported him closely during his
10 years as President of the Royal Institute of Painters in
Watercolours, while they collaborated on sculpture
conservation projects.
Peter Cannon-Brookes
Sheila Mitchell, sculptor: born Farnham, Surrey 24 November
1926; married 1951 Charles Bone (two sons); died Puttenham,
Surrey 8 May 2006.