One of the leading sculptors in Britain after World War II, Lynn Chadwick (born 1914) is well known for both abstract and figurative works that embodied the tensions of the post-war era. His precariously balanced, spiky, insect-like figures and more monumental geometric works have brought him international renown as a successor to Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.

Like many of his contemporaries, Chadwick followed a relatively indirect path to sculpture. He was born in London in 1914, the son of Verner Russell Chadwick, an engineer, and the former Marjorie Brown Lynn. He attended the Merchant Taylor's School in London, where his mentor K. P. F. Brown taught him oil and watercolor painting. Though his family appreciated the arts and had artist friends, they dissuaded Chadwick from pursuing formal training in sculpting, pointing out the difficulty of making a living through the arts in Depression-era England. In 1933 Chadwick began training as...