Althea Kathleen Wynne (6 October 1936 – 24 January 2012), also known by her married names of Dresman and Barrington Brown, was an English sculptor and art teacher, and a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

Royal British Society of Sculptors The Royal Society of Sculptors is a British charity established in 1905 which promotes excellence in the art and practice of sculpture. Its headquarters are a centre for contemporary sculpture on Old Brompton Road, South Kensington, London. It ...

. She specialized in creating large figurative work for gardens and public open spaces.

Early life

Born at

Biggleswade Biggleswade ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Central Bedfordshire in Bedfordshire, England. It lies on the River Ivel, 11 miles (18 km) south-east of Bedford. Its population was 16,551 in the 2011 United Kingdom census, and its es ...

, Wynne was the daughter of Group Captain Frederick Robert Wynne by his marriage in 1926 to Kathleen Anne Pole Stuart, and had an older brother and sister. Her grandparents were Dr and Mrs F. E. Wynne, of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, and Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs Reginald Pole Stuart, of

Folkestone Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...

. Her Stuart grandfather was the grandson of Sir William Stuart (1798–1874), himself the son of William Stuart, Archbishop of Armagh, and grandson of

John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, (; 25 May 1713 – 10 March 1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart between 1713 and 1723, was a British nobleman who served as the 7th Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762 to 1763 under George III. He was arguabl ...

, sometime Prime Minister, and his grandmother was Henrietta Maria Sarah, a daughter of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Morice Pole,

Governor of the Bank of England The governor of the Bank of England is the most senior position in the Bank of England. It is nominally a civil service post, but the appointment tends to be from within the bank, with the incumbent grooming their successor. The governor of the Ba ...

. At the time of Wynne's birth, her father was an officer in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

, and Wynne was educated at North Foreland Lodge,

Farnham School of Art Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a tribu ...

(1953–1955), Hammersmith College (1955–1957), and the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

(1957–1960)."Althea Wynne"
(obituary) in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'', 14 February 2012, online at telegraph.co.uk, accessed 3 June 2012

Life and career

Wild horses wouldn't drag me in here - geograph

In 1959 Wynne gained an early commission from

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

for a ciment-fondu group of swimmers, and in 1960 she won an open competition to design a new silver horse-racing trophy."Althea Wynne ARCA, FRBS"
profile at artparks.co.uk, accessed 4 June 2012: "Winner of open competition to design the TOPHAM TROPHY for a race at Aintree. Cast in silver." However, the same year she married Philip Dresman, and with him had a son and two daughters. For some years she spent most of her time bringing up her children, before returning to work as a teacher of art and the

history of art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic vis ...

. In 1982 she married secondly

Antony Barrington Brown Antony Barrington Brown FRPS (13 July 1927 – 24 January 2012) was a British designer, photographer, and explorer. He was known to many colleagues as BB. Barrington Brown was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford, and following National Servi ...

, a photographer,Antony Barrington-Brown Killed in Car Crash
at lro.com, accessed 3 June 2012 and at about the same time became active as a sculptor again. Wynne settled at

Upton Lovell Upton Lovell is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It lies on the A36, in the Wylye valley about southeast of Warminster. The parish is on the left (northeast) bank of the river, and stretches for over two miles northeast onto ...

in Wiltshire, where several pieces of her work were displayed in her garden. In ''Who's Who in Art'' her recreations were stated as "riding, sailing, talking". She died suddenly in January 2012, killed with her husband in a road accident on the A36 near her home while returning from the foundry that was to cast her last commission, two large bronzes of Windsor Grey horses for

Windsor Great Park Windsor Great Park is a Royal Park of , including a deer park, to the south of the town of Windsor on the border of Berkshire and Surrey in England. It is adjacent to the private Home Park, which is nearer the castle. The park was, for many ...

. Both Wynne and Barrington Brown were killed instantly in a collision between their car and a truck carrying aggregates. In February it was reported that there were plans to proceed with the Windsor project, finding another sculptor to complete the work by June 2013.

Work

As a sculptor, Wynne's chief inspirations were the natural environment and classical (especially

Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *The Etruscan language, an extinct language in ancient Italy *Something derived from or related to the Etruscan civilization **Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities ** Etrusca ...

) art. Most of her work was figurative, showing various forms of animal and female human figures. In 1988 her fountain ''Doves Rising'' was added to the Peace Park in

Hounslow Hounslow () is a large suburban district of West London, west-southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hounslow, and is identified in the London Plan as one of the 12 metropolitan centres in Gr ...

.David Buckman, ''Artists in Britain Since 1945 Vol 2, M to Z'' (Art Dictionaries Ltd, 2006 A lifelong rider, she made a number of equine statues, and in 1989 Prudential Property gave her a commission for three

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...

horses to stand by the steps at Minster Court in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

. Since nicknamed Sterling, Dollar and Yen, the group is ten feet high, weighs fourteen tonnes, and has been compared with the

horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

St Mark's Basilica The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark ( it, Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco), commonly known as St Mark's Basilica ( it, Basilica di San Marco; vec, Baxéłega de San Marco), is the cathedral church of the Catholic Chu ...

in Venice. In 1991 her ''Family of Goats'', for the

London Docklands Development Corporation The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was a quango agency set up by the UK Government in 1981 to regenerate the depressed Docklands area of east London. During its seventeen-year existence it was responsible for regenerating an a ...

, was erected at

Rotherhithe Rotherhithe () is a district of south-east London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, as well as the Isle of Dogs ...

. Other work includes a group called ''White Horses'', at the centre of a restaurant on ''

Queen Elizabeth 2 ''Queen Elizabeth 2'' (''QE2'') is a retired British ocean liner converted into a floating hotel. Originally built for the Cunard Line, the ship, named as the second ship named ''Queen Elizabeth'', was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic ...

'', which shows four horses riding the waves, "Europa and the Bull", a full-size bronze figure, and the three huge

obelisk An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...

s rising through the Bluewater shopping centre at

Greenhithe Greenhithe is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is located east of Dartford and west of Gravesend. Area In the past, Greenhithe's waterfront on the estuary of the riv ...

in Kent. She held solo exhibitions in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

in 1988 and 1991, at

Broadgate Broadgate is a large, office and retail estate in the Bishopsgate Without area of the City of London. It is owned by British Land and GIC and managed by Savills. The estate is in part of the eastern City fringe, outside the line of the no ...

in 1993, and in

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

in 1997. In 2012 her bronze ''Penelope Waiting'' was the signature piece for an exhibition of sculpture at

Avebury Manor Avebury Manor & Garden is a National Trust property consisting of a Grade I listed early-16th-century manor house and its surrounding garden. It is in Avebury, near Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, in the centre of the village next to St James' ...

."Garden exhibition to include work by artist killed in car accident"
''

Gazette and Herald The ''Gazette and Herald'' is a local weekly paid-for newspaper, established in Wiltshire, England, in 1816 and published every Thursday. It serves the areas and communities of Devizes, Calne, Chippenham, Wootton Bassett, Swindon, Marlborough, M ...

'', 24 April 2012, accessed 17 December 2022 Wynne wrote of the inspirations for her work:

Professional associations

* 1960: Associate of the

* 1986: Full member of the Society of Equestrian Artists * 1990: Associate of the

* 1994: Fellow of the Royal British Society of Sculptors

Notes

External links