|
|
Yes, it is possible, but a difficult process and one which ideally relies on the partnership of people who have known the sitter - to get a work which would be acceptable for a sculptor to 'release' as part of his or her body of work. Rodin composed the Balzac memorial posthumously, referring to much contemporary material and scrutinising his tailor's records in pursuit of as much 'truthful' information on the man. What is the archive of photos like? For the Carse bust [on my website], I had access to about 40 key photos which gave me the dominant profiles of his head - front, back, sides and the quarter angles... picked out from 60 years of photographs. It is viewed as successful - but I had the assistance of his widow to help shape the feel of the final work. Has your subject a surviving partner/children/close friend who would help in a similar way for a hour or two as part of the development of the bust? If it it evident that only one bust will ever be needed and that it will be in a location where there is no danger of damage (i.e. only really suited to in someone's house) then a unique terracotta would be about 2/3 of the bronze price. The last question is: where are the photos, and people, close to this person based? In the UK? If I need to travel out of the UK then my transport costs are going to be a little higher. Timeframes - the Carse bust took about 50 hours to get the clay right (a standard bust from life takes about 15!) but the "advantage" of not having a sitter is that I can progress things easily alone. The bronze process needs about 3 months turnaround - a slot at the foundry needs to be secured - but if I were deemed suitable by a funding committee then I could start immediately on assembling the secondary source information available. For more details, please make contact through the link above. |