ON PERMANENT DISPLAY IN THE NPG

OLIVIER (LAURENCE KERR, 1907-1989, actor and director, Lord Olivier of Brighton) FINE PORTRAIT BUST OF LAURENCE OLIVIER BY PETER LAMBDA (1911-1995), resin, with a dark brown convincingly bronze patination, on an ebonised wooden base, 21½ inches (55 cms) high [1951/1982]

This is one of the finest portraits of Laurence Olivier, an example of which is on permanent display in the National Portrait Gallery.

'In 1951 he [Peter Lambda] 'went to stay with the Oliviers at Notley Abbey, in Buckinghamshire, in order to sculpt Vivien Leigh, but following displays of temperament on her part came away instead with a monumental bust of the young Olivier which was first cast in 1982 for the National Portrait Gallery.' (Robin Gibson, Chief Curator of the National Portrait Gallery, in his obituary notice for Peter Lambda in the Independent, 29 July 1995).

Peter Lambda, born Levy in Hungary, adopted the surname Lambda, the Greek L, which was the name his father, Lajos Levy, a doctor, had used as a writer. Examples of his work are in the NPG, the Theatre Museum, the Garrick Club, the Drama League, the British Film Institute, the National Museum of Wales and elsewhere and in many private collections. He also had a successful career as a dramatist, and as a writer for films and television. Robin Gibson has described his portrait busts as 'some of the most forceful...of the time...'

£4,250