Statue of Sigmund Freud

A statue of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, is situated in the grounds of the Tavistock Clinic, at the junction of Fitzjohns Avenue and Belsize Lane, in Hampstead, North London. The seated bronze statue on a limestone plinth is a work of the sculptor Oscar Nemon. Freud lived nearby at 20 Maresfield Gardens for the last months of his life; his house is now the Freud Museum. Oscar Nemon was born and educated in Osijek before moving to work in Vienna in the 1920s. He had read Freud in his teens, initially approached Freud as a young sculptor and was rejected by him. After Nemon had gained his reputation in Brussels, he was approached by Freud's assistant Paul Federn in 1931 to sculpt Freud for his 75th birthday. Nemon finished busts of Freud in wood, bronze and plaster, and Freud chose to keep the wooden portrait for himself. The wooden bust is on display at the Freud Museum in Hampstead. Nemon visited Freud for a final time in London in 1938. His last sittings with Freud would create a "harsher[,] more abstracted portrait" which would become the head for the seated bronze in Hampstead. Freud wrote in his diary in July 1931 of Nemon's portrait that "The head, which the gaunt, goatee-bearded artist has fashioned from the dirt like the good Lord is very good and an astonishingly life-like impression of me." On seeing the head of Freud, his housekeeper Paula Fichtl sai

Data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).