Joseph Conrad

Abstract

Muirhead Bone¹ had arranged that I should do a bust of Conrad for him. I had desired, ten years before, to work from him and had spoken to Richard Curie² about it, but had been informed by him that Conrad could not sit for me owing to the intervention of a painter ‘friend’. At the time I was deeply disappointed and dropped the idea, but in 1924 the commission was finally arranged. My admiration for Conrad was immense, and he had a head that appealed to a sculptor, massive and fine at the same time, so I jumped at the idea of working from him at last. After a meeting in London it was arranged with him that I should go down to his place at Oswalds, near Canterbury, and — at my suggestion — should live in an inn in a nearby village while working on the bust. This arrangement always suits me best, as I prefer to be free outside my working hours.

From Let There Be Sculpture: An Autobiography (London: Michael Joseph, 1940) pp. 89–94.