JONATHAN KENWORTHY (British, b. 1943)

Jonathan Kenworthy began modelling when he was four and, at eleven years old, was invited to study part time at the Royal College of Art under John Skeaping, Professor of Sculpture. Kenworthy went on to become a student at the Royal Academy Schools. He further studied animal anatomy at the Royal Veterinary College and then at the Department of Comparative Anatomy at University College Nairobi.

In 1965, Kenworthy became the youngest ever winner of the Royal Academy Gold Medal.That year he also had his first exhibition at London’s Tryon Gallery and further received a Landseer Travelling Scholarship.

He made the first of his nearly annual journeys to Africa later that year. That first trip to Africa sparked wanderlust in the artist who, over the course of his career, has traveled to India, Nepal, and Afghanistan in search of material for his sculptures and drawings.

He is the recipient of numerous commissions throughout Britain and the United States, including the Ernest Hemingway Memorial Commission (Ketchum, Idaho) and for the Grosvenor Estates for the Duke of Westminster. Kenworthy continues to sculpt and his bronzes of wild animals and the people of the Africa tribes he has encountered in his travels continue to garner him international acclaim.