While walking in Sutton Courtney a while back, I noticed this familiar Mother and Child sculpture, surrounded by trees. It is where Franta Belsky, the Czech born sculptor, used to have his studio.
Entitled The Lesson, the sculpture is permanently on display in Abingdon near the library, and bears the inscription ‘In memory of Margaret Belsky‘ . She was a well known newspaper cartoonist in the 1960s, and the wife of the sculptor. The Lesson was one of her favourite works.
It was presented to Abingdon by Franta Belsky, in 1989, the year of his wife’s death, and is the second bronze casting.
The first was unveiled in 1959 in Bethnal Green, London. I presume the verdigris one in Sutton Courtney is a prototype.
(Thanks to the Information Centre for an Abingdon Herald article on 21 Sept 1989 called “Sculptor’s memory in Bronze“)
Thanks for this. I walk past the statue quite regularly and it's really interesting to learn about the sculpture and the fact there are sister sculptures elsewhere.
The ‘story’ goes locally that, as they were renovating that area in the 80’s, they unearthed a Bronze Aged Woman and her child.