Lot 1092: Thomas Whalen RSA, 1903-1975

A carved stone mother and child figure group, the mother crouching, embracing and kissing the child, on a plinth base, signed TW 1935, with original bill of sale. 20 wide, 54cm high (7.5" wide, 21" high)

Thomas Whalen was born in Leith. He worked as a shipwright during the Great War using spare wood for carving. During the 1920s he continued to carve and was granted a scholarship at the Edinburgh College of Art where he won the first Andrew Grant Fellowship. In 1932 he won a Carnegie Travelling Scholarship and the following year the Guthrie award. Whalen exhibited at the RSA from 1930 (ARSA 1940, RSA 1953). Commissions include 'Mother and Child' for The Festival of Britain.