Four works by the 20th century sculptor in the City of London.
One of the pleasures of walking around the Square Mile is the wide variety of modern sculptures on display, in addition to historic statuary. I particularly enjoy four pieces by Karin Jonzen.
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Jonzen was one of Britain's leading post war 20th century sculptors, working in stone, bronze and terracotta. She created public sculptures for locations across London, including Sydenham Hill, the National Portrait Gallery, Sloane Gardens and Covent Garden.
This post looks at her works in the City of London: Beyond Tomorrow, The Gardener, a bust of Samuel Pepys and Mother and Child.
She was born Karin Löwenadler in London in 1914 to Swedish parents as one of twins. Her sister Gerda grew up to be an interior designer. Karin initially had ambitions to become a cartoonist, but she excelled in both painting and sculpture at the Slade School of Art, where she studied from 1933 to 1936.
During this time she was inspired by Ancient Greek sculpture at the British Museum, and decided to be a sculptor. She then attended the Royal Academy Stockholm and the City and Guilds Art School in London, when she focused on stone carving. The outbreak of World War II prevented her from taking up a travelling scholarship to Rome.
While recovering from an illness, after a period of driving ambulances at Spitalfields for the Civil Defence during the war, she decided to focus on figurative sculpture. She reacted against the approach of artists such as Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Pablo Picasso, whose sculptures she felt "did violence to the human form". She used stone debris from wartime bombing raids for carving in her garage.
She married Basil Jonzen, an artist and dealer, in 1944. Their son, Martin Jonzen, also became an artist. After her divorce from Basil, in 1972 she married Åke Sucksdorff, a poet whom she had known for many years.
After the war, in 1948, she won the Royal British Society of Sculptors' Award for women artists. The award was named in honour of Feodora Gleichen, a British sculptor whose family was distantly related to Queen Victoria and Henry VIII's wife Jane Seymour. Gleichen had posthumously become the Society's first female member after her death in 1922.
The award led to several public commissions. These included works for the Festival of Britain in 1951, a sculpture for the new Southbank Centre for the Arts Council, and pieces for the World Health Organisation in New Delhi and Geneva in the 1960s.
For a while struggling to receive new commissions, she taught sculpture at Camden Arts Centre and also lectured on abstract art at London University in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
After entering three sculptures for the City of London Festival in 1968, the City of London Corporation commissioned two works from Jonzen: Beyond Tomorrow and The Gardener.
Beyond Tomorrow (1972), a composition outside the North Wing of Guildhall in the City, comprises two nudes - one male and one female - looking into the distance. The male figure is sitting on the ground, while the female is reclining. They are holding hands (see the photo at the start of this post).
The City Corporation commissioned Jonzen on the strength of a small model. She was unhappy with the casting of the full size work, made while she was out of the country, and paid for a re-cast, in bronze resin, from her own pocket. Lord Blackford, a member of the Corporation, liked it so much that he paid for a new bronze version, which is the one we can still see today.
The Gardener (1972) is very nearby on London Wall, outside Brewers Hall in a small open space surrounded by plants.
This bronze sculpture was commissioned by the Trees, Gardens and City Open Spaces Committee of the City Corporation to pay tribute to its members staff. It portrays a gardener - half-kneeling, half squatting - carefully observing something on the ground in front of him. Perhaps he is examining a young shoot, or tending the soil after planting a seed?
This work brought Jonzen to the attention of Fred Cleary, who was Chair of the Open Spaces Committee and also Treasurer of the Samuel Pepys Club, which was founded in 1903 to honour of the 17th century London diarist. Cleary commissioned her to create a bust of Samuel Pepys (1983).
It was placed in Seething Lane Garden, next to the site of the Navy Office, where Pepys worked and lived. The garden was re-landscaped in 2017, when the sculpture acquired a new plinth.
The plinth displays the notes of a tune written by Pepys to a song called Beauty Retire. My short video below includes a recording of it by Richard Wistreich and Robin Jeffrey and gives some background to the song.
Jonzen's only indoor work in the City of London is Mother and Child, which is inside the church of St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside. A theme that she visited more than once in her work, the title of this bronze is open to interpretation as to which mother and child is represented. However, its presence in the church supports the suggestion that it depicts Mary and the baby Jesus.
A 1961 sculpture with the same name was located outside a community centre in Sydenham Hill where a mother and baby centre was held. It later went missing, presumed stolen.
Speaking about her own work, Karin Jonzen said:
"I believe that there has always been a feeling of love and tenderness between human beings, albeit rare as it involves sacrifice, not of integrity, but of egoism which is a prerogative of the spiritually insecure. My awareness of this and my acceptance of the vagaries of life itself have given my work a continuity and a certain serenity, quite regardless of my own material success or failure.”
Returning to Jonzen's first work in the City, its title, Beyond Tomorrow, is thought to have been suggested one of Lord Blackford's friends. He was inspired by the pose and attitude of the two characters, looking into their own future. It certainly has a contemplative, anticipatory and hopeful feel.
On a personal note, my interview for a place on the City of London Guides course was held in the North Wing of Guildhall five years ago this month. I passed this sculpture on my way to the interview, beginning a life-changing process that has taken me beyond tomorrow to a new today.
Walks available for booking
For a schedule of forthcoming London On The Ground guided walks, please click here.
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