Works by Frances Segelman are among royal artworks on show at new exhibition. She reveals what her intimate conversations with our late Queen and new King told her about their characters
September 29, 2022 11:25
The Jewish sculptor to the stars who created likenesses of the Queen, Prince Philip and King Charles has opened up about her memories of working with the royals.
Frances Segelman spent many intimate hours getting to know each member of the Royal Family as she fashioned their busts in clay. All the works will be reunited for a special show, along with other royal artworks, to be launched in London this week.
“Charles is an extremely sensitive man — very, very caring,” says Frances, who made several trips to the then prince’s home, Highgrove, to sculpt him. “He was very worried about the planet and about what was happening to the world. He was very, very concerned. He is a very gentle person like his mother. They are both extremely lovely and caring.”
Segelman's bust of HM the King
She remembers the Queen as being equally concerned about her subjects’s welfare. “When I was with the Queen in a room in Buckingham Palace, at that time the area outside hadn’t been pedestrianised and she was worried that there were so many cars, and so many people going into the road to take photographs, that someone would get run over,” she tells the JC.
Leeds-born Frances says she still sometimes has to pinch herself when she thinks about some of the famous people she has sculpted, ranging from Yehudi Menuhin to Boris Johnson.
A former model who had always loved art, she started sculpting when her two children were little and has never looked back, with each commission proving so popular that they led to several more.
The first member of the Royal Family she sculpted was Prince Philip in 2000, when she was commissioned to do a bust to celebrate 50 years of him working with the charity London Youth.
“To be honest, at first he was a bit grumpy and I was very nervous,” admits Frances. “And then he started talking about things that I didn’t know very much about like carriage racing.
"But when we had our second sitting, I was more relaxed and I’d researched some of the different subjects I knew he’d like to talk about. We talked about his painting and we ended up getting on really well.
“On our last sitting I remember being in the room at Buckingham Palace that is set aside for artists thinking, ‘I would love to come back here and sculpt the Queen.’” Seven years after working with Prince Philip, Frances got her chance to sculpt one of the most famous faces in the world for the charity Barnardo’s.
The late HM the Queen unveiling her sculpture by Frances Segelman for The Scout Association
