Featured ArtistSava Botzaris Portrait sculptor, 1894-1965
Sava Botzaris was born in Belgrade in 1894 and was the son of the Court Painter, to King Peter 1st of Serbia . He studied with his Father and later in Naples and Rome before going to the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Atelier Cormont.
He settled in London in 1920 and pursued a career in Sculpture. He also took on work as a caricaturist. He had one-man exhibitions at the Fine Art Society in 1926, the French Gallery in 1929, and the Leicester Galleries in 1938.
He portrayed some very famous people. Amongst them, the writer, George Bernard Shaw, the actor Charles Laughton, Haile Selassie, the King of Ethiopia, and the writer James Joyce.
His work is particularly interesting for the variety of materials and stylistic approach, often to characterise the life or period of the subject. GB Shaw, the great Victorian, is modelled with great flourish , whereas James Joyce is highly stylised. Although this copy is in bronze, the portrait of Haile Selassie could have been carved out of wood and in an almost primitive style redolent of African masks and yet even so is still a good likeness of the subject. Charles Laughton’s head is different again and shows the influence of Hollywood Arte Deco.
In 1938 he emigrated to Venezuela and became naturalised in 1947. He died in Caracas in 1965.
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