Elisabeth Frink was one of Britain’s most remarkable and accordingly well-rounded twentieth-century artists. A prolific and driven artist, her pieces were highly sought after, from the beginning, starting with the Tate organization’s purchase of Bird in 1952, while she was still an undergraduate student at the Chelsea College of Art, London (1949-53).

Although animal forms were subjects she continued to produce for some time, with horses and dogs recurring as subject matter through out her life, she also worked from the early days with the human subject. Frink’s first known head is, Arthur Collings (1952), a boyfriend while attending Chelsea. Frink’s work was also entwined in her personal life, nothing would prevent her from determinedly charging to the studio each morning, she always expressed intense attitudes and emotions through work. While the product of a long-standing military family, Elisabeth was appalled at the violation of human rights initiated by officers during the Algerian wars. As a result she produced the Goggled Head series in the late 1960s, which depicted these men with severe features and immense sunglasses, behind which they hid from stark realities.

Following years of prolific art production and innumerable displays of work, Elisabeth Frink was diagnosed with cancer in her early 60s. During the last year of her life she was unable to work as intensively however, she managed to complete a number of commissions already agreed, and, unbeknownst to most, Elisabeth delivered her best with a very personal portrait. Exuding the confidence of a learned sculptor and the compassionate love of a grandmother, Tully (unfinished) (1992), portrays the head of her son Lin’s son. This piece is also a tribute to her determination to continually master new skills; despite her illness and the resultant time restraint, rather than work as usual from plaster; the artist beautifully modeled this final form from clay.

Elisabeth Frink was no doubt one of the twentieth-century greats, and, as fittingly worded by Elisabeth’s art dealer and friend Theo Waddington in 2005, she may not have had the quantity of years, but she certainly had the quality of years.