This striking early work by Lynn Chadwick is an important sculpture that charts the progression of the figure in his work. Conceived in 1954 during the exciting period that Chadwick was gaining international fame for his unique visual language, this work bears reference to prehistoric cave painting, the natural world and contemporary culture.

In an exhibition curated by Pangolin London in 2021 titled 'Lynn Chadwick: Subliminal Influences', the gallery explored the visual stimuli that might have inspired his works and included The Stranger, 1945 drawing attention to the striking similarities the sculpture had to the proliferation of images in the press of the daredevil Bird Men of the time Leo Valentin (1919-1956) and Clem Sohn (1910-1937).

The exhibition text noted:

At the opening of London’s Gatwick Airport in 1936, attended by Chadwick aged twenty-two, Sohn’s parachute opened at the last minute and he ended up injured - a story which gave an added dose of drama to the many press stories that followed. Many artists such as Elisabeth Frink and César were inspired to capture these fearless flyers in their sculpture.

For Chadwick, these images can be seen to inform his Stranger series and Winged Figures whose beaked heads and winged bodies had progressed out of the previous more beast-like Conjunctions and Encounters. Rungwe Kingdon notes:
The photographs of Sohn and Valentin in their winged suits capture the public’s imagination not only for their daring but also their soaring ambition of be able to ‘fly’. Their hybrid appearance of bat human or bird human provided a ready-made analogy for sculptors, painters and musicians alike.