Person    | Male  Born 6/4/1921  Died 5/7/2000

Franta Belsky

Categories: Sculpture

Countries: Czechoslovakia

Born Czechoslovakia as Frantisek Belsky. Fled 3 times, twice to escape the Nazis and then again from the Communists. Ornamental Passions we learn that all Belsky's sculptures contain an empty Guinness bottle, the day's newspaper, a sixpence and a note stating that he was the artist.

Other works in London: the 1957 Shell fountain in front of the Shell Building on the South Bank and The Lesson in Bethnal Green.

From Radio Prague International: "He served in the Battle of France, was twice mentioned in the dispatches during the war and saw Winston Churchill at an inspection after the evacuation at Dunkirk. .. After the war, Bělský returned to Czechoslovakia and studied sculpting. However, his studies were disrupted when Bělský escaped Czechoslovakia a second time after the Communist coup d’etat in 1948, but he soon found himself learning again, this time at the Royal College of Art in London. The artist’s first major commission came at the Festival of Britain in 1951. ... Bělský became the official sculptor of the royal family, creating the busts of Queen Elizabeth II, as well as of the princes Philip, William, Andrew and the queen mother."

2023: English Radio CZ has a very informative interview with Bohumil Vostal, the author of a book about Belsky "He Portraited the Queen of England".

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This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Franta Belsky

Creations i

Cunningham bust

Unveiled by Prince Philip in 1967. Inside the bust there is a ½ pint Guinness...

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Mountbatten statue

9 foot 5 inches, bronze on a plinth at the centre of a low stepped platform. ...

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Tattersall's auction yard

This sculpture 'Triga' recalls the racehorses that were bought and sold on th...

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Other Subjects

Patricia Finch

Patricia Finch

Other work in London includes "Seated Girl", 1990 in Golders Hill Park.

Person, Sculpture

1 memorial
Mary Thornycroft

Mary Thornycroft

Sculptor. Born Norfolk but in 1823 her family moved to London, 56 Albany Street. Her father, John Francis, was a sculptor and she worked with him as assistant and pupil in Albany Street. In 1840 sh...

Person, Sculpture

2 memorials
Frank Mowbray Taubman

Frank Mowbray Taubman

Frank Mowbray Taubman was born on 13 June 1868 in Holloway, Middlesex (now Greater London), the second of the four children of Robert Taubman (1840-1905) and Fanny Taubman née Mountain (1845-1932)....

Person, Art, Poetry, Sculpture

1 memorial
Edwin Russell

Edwin Russell

Sculptor. Born Edwin John Cumming Russell. He studied at the Brighton School of Art and the Royal Academy School. Other works in London include sundials at Tower Hill and at the Marine Society in V...

Person, Sculpture

1 memorial
Carl Payne
1 memorial