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Queen Elizabeth posed 12 times for bronze sculpture made in 1957

The year was 1956, and there was much anticipation for Queen Elizabeth II’s first visit to Nigeria. The young monarch had only been reigning for a few years and was making a long-awaited visit to the West African country, which had not yet become a republic.

Prior to her arrival, famous Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu received a commission to commemorate her visit with a statue, making him the first African artist to create an official portrait of a member of the royal family.

He began work on the sculpture the following year, visiting Buckingham Palace in London for several sessions.

“In 1957, Queen Elizabeth II posed for Enwonwu for a large bronze sculpture,” says the Royal Collection Trust, which oversees the British royal family’s art collection.

In all, Queen Elizabeth has posed for Enwonwu 12 times, eight of which at Buckingham Palace, according to the Ben Enwonwu Foundation website.

The rest of the sessions took place in a private studio belonging to Sir William Reid-Dick, Enwonwu’s colleague at the Royal Society of British Artists.

During this period, Enwonwu “completed a portrait bust and a sketch model of the sculpture,” according to the foundation.

“African Features”

Enwonwu completed the sculpture in 1957 and surprised some at the time by portraying the queen with fuller lips. His son Oliver said it was part of Ben Enwonwu’s signature style to “Africanize” his models.

“Some of the criticism the sculpture received was that the artist portrayed the queen through her African eyes, the work had African features, which was characteristic of his work,” Oliver Enwonwu told CNN .

Oliver, also a renowned artist, described the Queen’s sculpture as one of his father’s greatest works.

“My father was very proud of that. It was one of his masterpieces that showed his prowess as an artist,” he told CNN .

“In season, [Enwonwu fazer uma escultura da rainha] it was something very important, because he was an African artist. But he was the most famous in the Commonwealth at the time, so it was very easy for him to pass,” added Oliver.

Although the sculpture stayed in Nigeria, Queen Elizabeth acquired the bust and, according to the Royal Collection Trust, also acquired another sculpture by Enwonwu, as well as several of his paintings.

The bronze sculpture of the queen was later placed in the Nigerian parliament building ahead of preparations for the country’s independence from Britain in 1960.

The work now resides in the Nigerian National Museum.

An influential African artist

Enwonwu came to be known as one of Africa’s greatest modernists. Her portrait of Nigerian princess Adetutu “Tutu” Ademiluyi, nicknamed the “African Mona Lisa”, sold for more than $1.6 million at auction in London in 2018.

Born in 1917, Enwonwu has been described as the most influential African artist of the 20th century. He had become an eminent artist even before his royal commission, and in 1954 he was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen for his services. the art.

Enwonwu won a scholarship in 1944 from Shell West Africa and the British Council to study fine art in the UK after a successful solo exhibition. He received a classical education at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and attended the University of Oxford. Enwonwu later returned to Nigeria to become a university professor.

He was named Nigeria’s first art professor by the University of Ife, now known as Obafemi Awolowo University, in 1971 and received a National Merit Award from the Nigerian government nine years later.

He died in 1994, aged 77.

Source: CNN Brasil

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