| Creator Name | William Timym MBE (1901-1990).
Austrian-born British cartoonist and sculptor. Born in Vienna, Timym studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and was a newspaper cartoonist before fleeing to London in 1938. He was briefly interned in 1940 as an 'enemy alien'. Given wartime lack of newsprint Timym made ends meet by painting dolls' faces, but through a Jewish agent, Billy Cooper, he obtained commissions to paint posters for the Ministry of Information and to make pastel portraits of armed forces' chiefs. He later contributed a regular strip cartoon to Woman magazine and as 'Tim' becmae popular with viewers of TV's Children's Hour, particularly the mischievious cartoon puppy Bengo. He also appeared on Blue peter, and sculpted one of that programmes resident dogs, Petra. London Zoo commissioned him to sculpt Guy the Gorilla in 1978. |
| Administrative History | Possibly commissioned by The Daily Telegraph newspaper in 1967 following the conductor's death on 3 October 1967 (RAH Council minutes: 2904, 66c: 1967). Later displayed in the main entrance Foyer of the Royal Albert Hall during the 1968 Proms season and then exhibited at the Royal Festival Hall, London in December 1968.
Presented to the Royal Albert Hall by theWilliam Timyim on 30 May 1974. Displayed in the Door 6 (North Porch) foyer ever since. |