Portrait bust of the Queen
21 October 2009 (updated on 22 April 2010)
A bronze portrait bust of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, by sculptor Oscar Nemon, was unveiled in the House of Lords on 20 October.
The bust is on permanent display in the Robing Room in the House of Lords, part of the public tour route in the Palace of Westminster.
It is one and quarter life-size and is displayed on an octagonal oak pedestal and is cast from an original plaster made in the 1960s during sittings with the Queen when Nemon had a studio within St James’s Palace. Another portrait bust of the Queen, made during the same sittings, was unveiled at Christ Church College, Oxford in 1962.
In 2004, Nemon’s daughter-in-law, Alice Nemon Stuart donated a series of clay and plaster heads made during sittings at St James’s Palace to the House of Lords in memory of her husband, Falcon Nemon Stuart. Following this generous donation, the House of Lords Works of Art Committee commissioned this bronze portrait bust.
The most notable other work by Nemon in the Parliamentary Art Collection is the full-size statue of Winston Churchill in Members’ Lobby. The collection also contains a portrait bust of Churchill and busts of Harold Macmillan and Manny Shinwell by Nemon.