Leonard Walker (1879-1965)

The depicted Leonard Walker was a designer of stained glass, a painter and Master of the Art Workers' Guild.

This white bust (with a slightly darker surface wash, peeling in places) is set on a rectangular marble socle, with a label on the side giving the address of its sculptor, Cecil Thomas: 108 Brompton Road, London. Thomas lived at this address (also known as Dora House, after his wife) from 1919. The house is now the home of the Royal Society of British Sculptors, to whom it was bequeathed in 1976.

Thomas (1885-1976) was an English sculptor and medallist. He trained under his father’s gem engraving business in London and at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, where he also specialized in gem engraving. After 1918, when he exhibited sculpture at the Royal Academy for the first time, he became active in that field.