The Papers of Oscar Nemon

Oscar Nemon was born in Osijek, Yugoslavia on 13 March 1906, the elder son of Mavro and Eugenia Nemon, members of the local Jewish community. Nemon was educated at Osijek, before applying to the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna [Austria]. Although unsuccessful in his application, he still stayed in Vienna for some time, and whilst there met and later sculpted Sigmund Freud and Princess Bonaparte. Nemon also studied in Paris [France], and in 1925 won a bursary to the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels [Belgium], where he was awarded the gold medal for sculpture. Just before the outbreak of war in 1939 Nemon came to Britain, and married Patricia Villiers-Stuart; they had one son and two daughters.

Exhibitions of Nemon's work were held in principal capitals of Europe, and examples of his sculptures are in the House of Commons, Windsor Castle, the London Guildhall, Somerville College and the Union, Oxford. He is perhaps best known for his series of sculptures of Sir Winston Churchill, but his other sitters include: Queen Elizabeth II; Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother; [Maurice] Harold Macmillan [later 1st Lord Stockton]; 1st Lord Beaverbrook [earlier Max Aitken]; Sigmund Freud; Sir Max Beerbohm; 1st Lord Montgomery of Alamein; Dwight D Eisenhower; Baroness Thatcher; Lord Shinwell; Lord Portal of Hungerford. Nemon died on 13 April 1985.

The papers are chiefly concerned with Nemon's sculptures of Winston Churchill and Baroness Thatcher, and consist of: some casts, moulds and models; correspondence on Nemon's work, with working sketches of Churchill; Nemon's writing on Churchill, particularly drafts for his memoirs and accounts of sculpting him; photographs of the statues, including work in progress and the completed sculptures; contemporary photographs, used as reference material by Nemon; cut out profiles, particularly of Clementine Churchill and Margaret Thatcher.

The papers were given to Churchill Archives Centre by Alice Nemon Stuart in November 2003.

The papers are owned by Churchill College.

The collection is open for consultation by researchers using Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge. Churchill Archives Centre is open from Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm. A prior appointment and two forms of identification are required.

Researchers wishing to publish excerpts from the papers must obtain prior permission from the copyright holders and should seek advice from Archives Centre staff.

Please cite as Churchill Archives Centre, The Papers of Oscar Nemon, NEMO

Churchill Archives Centre also holds the papers of Sir Winston Churchill (http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/churchill_papers/) and Baroness Thatcher (http://www.chu.cam.ac.uk/archives/collections/thatcher.shtml). Associated material is held at Freud House, the Henry Moore Institute and the Cabinet War Rooms, London. See also Oscar Nemon's Studio (details at http://www.oscarnemon.org.uk).

A copy of this finding aid is available for consultation at Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, the National Register of Archives, London, and on the Janus website, http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk.

This finding aid was prepared by Katharine Thomson and Sandra Marsh at Churchill Archives Centre in February 2004 and August 2005. Biographical information taken from Nemon's entry in Who Was Who (A&C Black) and from Gerald Taylor's article, 'Nemon, Oscar (1906-1985)', revised, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.