Radnorshire Fine Arts Ltd

Description

Portrait of Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) by
Hugh Oloff de Wet (19112-1975)
Signed and dated in pencil 'H Oloff de Wet' 50, (lower right), also signed with monogram (OW) in brown crayon over pencil
Brown crayon over a penciled outline
Mounted (not framed)

Note This work is believed to be a preliminary study for a bronze bust sculpted by Hugh Oloff de Wet two years before Thomas’s death the bust is thought to be the only sculpture made of Thomas while he was alive.

De Wet fought in the Spanish Civil War. In the 2nd World War he worked as a secret service agent in Prague. In July 1939 both he and his wife were captured by the Gestapo. He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. Later he was held in solitary confinement in Brandenburg Prison, for six years, under sentence of death. After the war despite the injuries received to his hands, he established himself as a portrait sculptor. His sitters included Ezra Pound, Brendan Behan, John Cowper Powys, Robert Graves and Edmund Blunden.

A copy of the book 'The Valley of the Shadow’ written by Oloff de Wet, and published by William Blackwood, Edinburgh, 1949, will be included along with the sale of the picture. In the book Oloff de Wet gives his own version of his experiences as a secret agent of France in Prague, and of his capture and imprisonment by the Gestapo. He tells of his incredible triumph of the human spirit over brutality, torture and his own attempts to escape and suicide.