This bronze portrait bust by Angela Conner (b. 1935) is of Ian Fleming, a prominent British author known for writing the James Bond series. Conner captures Fleming's relaxed posture as he rests his head on his open hand that is holding a cigarette, a popular fixture in photographs of the author. The textured material captures the author's age through the creases of his forehead and around his eyes. The author can also be seen to be wearing a suit and bowtie, as the bust includes the beginning of his shoulders, reflective of James Bond's similarly consistent attire. Conner capturing these details of Fleming allows the viewer to have an intimate perspective of the figure in the bust. 

It is notable that this bust was created posthumously to the subject's passing, a rare occurrence as Conner preferred to work from life when capturing details in her work. The bust was part of a larger series of 40 scultpures that captured other prominent figures such as Charles de Gaulle, Queen Elizabeth II, Lord Rothschild, and The Duke of Devonshire to name a few. 

Angela Conner FRBS, born 1935

Born in London, Conner is a self-taught sculptor, who later apprenticed under and assisted Barbara Hepworth in her Cornwall studio. By the sixties, a fascination with the elements became central to the development of her carefully engineered kinetic sculptures. Located in urban landmarks all over the world, these iron, marble and bronze monuments incorporate and seek to mirror the water or wind’s movements and behaviours in entrancing motion. In the UK, she is also a celebrated live sculptor of intimate, figurative busts of prominent British personalities and royalty, such as the fourteen on display at Chatsworth.