Rosemary Young British, 1930-2019

Rosemary Young was born in Esher, Surrey in 1930. She studied at the Camberwell and Wimbledon School of Arts between 1947-49 before undertaking a sculpture diploma at the Slade School of Fine Art between 1949-53 under the tutorship of Alfred Gerrard and Reg Butler. It was here that she encountered visiting sculptors such as Henry Moore, Alberto Giacometti, Jacques Lipchitz and Ossip Zadkine. Young graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art in 1953 and her most important show was with Robert Clatworthy and Takis Vassilakis at the Hanover Gallery, London in 1955 where she first exhibited Women with Children. Young eventually gave up her own work for a long period to focus on casting and producing Reg Butler’s bronzes and bring up a young family having become his second wife.

There is some resemblances to Butler’s early work in the slender, delicate figures and intricate wire work as well as in the original medium of shell bronze which was developed by Butler and Young together. Young has recorded a series about her life with Reg Butler for the National Sound Archive.