Focus on Christopher Marvell
- James Stewart
- Aug 6
- 4 min read
Updated: Aug 11
Christopher Marvell is one of my favourite sculptors, we have one of his pieces in our garden. He is passionate about sculpture, and makes both large and small bronzes in small editions of 5-7.
I have been lucky to have worked with Christopher Marvell since 2009.
Christopher Marvell enjoys the physical work and atmosphere of the foundry, the process of working from drawings and maquettes means that he is never quite sure how the finished piece will look. A sculpture might start as a drawing, or sketch, but then he makes a plaster macquette.
His studio is conveniently situated in the back garden of his Cambridgeshire home where he lives with his artist wife, Elaine Pamphilon. His large, bright sculpture studio is littered with plaster moulds of animals and monumental, life-sized figures.
He studied art at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne then moved to Cambridge and began working in a studio at Fulbourn Manor with artist and designer Majorie Townley. Marjorie Townley was born in 1898, studied at the AcademieColerossi in Paris, then worked on the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts ( them movement later known as Art Deco). Imagination and energy characterised her life and work, and this must have been a strong influence on the young Christopher Marvell.
He has been casting in bronze for over thirty years, a material that certainly has its ups and downs.
He says "The disadvantage of bronze is that it's expensive, long-winded, repetitive and slow but the surface quality is amazing and the material accommodating, you can easily stick things on and remove them."
His work is mainly figurative, and his subjects are people, animals and birds: "None of my sculptures are particularly anybody or anything, it's just a head, just an owl, just a dog. They're emblematic: shapes, forms, emotions..”.
The sculptures present themselves as seemingly blunt facts, but on deeper reflection they initiate a subtle dialogue that encourages the viewer to consider not only the relationship between human and animal, but also between the human/animal archetype and the human/animal condition itself.
Somehow, his animals do not contain individual character, but rather they suggest the character of their species as distilled through human convention and consciousness.
Across the garden is Christopher's drawing studio, a glass-fronted shed drawn up by his architect daughter. Filling sketchbooks and pinned upon easels, his more recent portraits are sketches rubbed out roughly and redrawn, leaving the ghostly evidence of the previous incarnation partially visible. "I like this method, it retains the stain of the old drawing."
On the external wall of the studio, facing the street, Christopher has mounted John Donne's poem 'The Sun Rising', a nod to the name of the eponymous old pub that once stood here (The Rising Sun) but also, perhaps, a signifier of the light-flooded studio that stands on the other side of the wall.
Christopher Marvell continues "Walking daily through the landscapes around the studios gives a constant focus for what I am trying to make. My sculptures have a quiet english based quality of man and nature in the way that we hear countryside through Britton or Vaughan Williams."
It is the business of observing acutely and recording – of searching for the line and shape and images. You have to make art from what you know about – a celebration of locality"
Jeremy Musson, architectural historian, writer, consultant, and lecturer, said of Marvell's sculpture "Conceived through drawing, expressed initially in maquette, fixed in plaster and fully realised in bronze, the sculpture of Christopher Marvell is sparing in detail but fulsome in association. The solid, substantial, patinated human and animal subjects that constitute the larger part of his output manage to achieve an irresistible balance between humour and pathos, ugliness and beauty, strength and weakness, past and present, and art and craft. Bringing to mind elements of the works of Marini, Giacometti, Miro and Moore, Christopher Marvell’s broadly representational sculpture is often charmingly quirky without ever being diminished by its idiosyncrasy."
Melanie Veasey, art historian and writer said "Capturing his patient observations of the natural world, Marvell’s works eliminates extraneous detail, whilst retaining familiar characteristics. His whimsical animals, birds, and figures are scaled for interiors and contemplative garden spaces. Marvell’s craftsmanship renders the weight of bronze as light, contemporary and tactile, washed in warm opaque rose-beige or misted-grey patinas. Soft silhouettes define the gentle curves of these minimalist sculptures, encouraging the gaze to travel across delicate surface indentations. Scratched and pitted as features, feathers and fur, the fine serrations maintain the simplicity of presentation. Collectively, Marvell’s sculptures convey a sense of fanciful and playful intent."
Christopher Marvell's sculptures are in public and private collections in the UK, USA, France Spain and Germany: Including the Ingram Collection, one of the largest and most significant publicly accessible collections of modern British art in the UK, available to all through a programme of loans and exhibitions.
He exhibits widely, mostly in St Ives and London, and sometimes with his wife, painter, Elaine Pamphilon.
Current Exhibition at Tarrant Gallery
During August 2026 Zimmer Stewart present a selection of six sculptures by Christopher Marvell.
Butterflies and Flowers by Christopher Marvell cast bronze edition of 5, 33 x 16 x 37 cm Tiger and Tree by Christopher Marvell cast bronze, edition of 5, 41 x 48 x 20 cm Wild Duck by Christopher Marvell cast bronze, edition of 5, 41 x 45 x 17 cm Red Head by Christopher Marvell cast bronze edition of 5, 30 x 30 x 18 cm Small Running Dogs by Christopher Marvell cast bronze, pair, edition of 5, 16 x 36 x 9 cm Wild Duck by Christopher Marvell cast bronze, edition of 5, 41 x 45 x 17 cm
These are:
Butterflies and Flowers, cast bronze edition of 5, 33 x 16 x 37 cm
Tiger and Tree, cast bronze, edition of 5, 41 x 48 x 20 cm
Indigo Bird, cast bronze, edition of 5, 47 x 29 x 25 cm
Red Head, cast bronze edition of 5, 30 x 30 x 18 cm
Small Running Dogs, cast bronze, pair, edition of 5, 16 x 36 x 9 cm
Wild Duck, cast bronze, edition of 5, 41 x 45 x 17 cm
These will be exhibited until 30 August with paintings by Nick Bodimeade.
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11-4 and by appointment outside these times.
Open everyday during the Arundel Gallery Trail from 22 to 30 August, 11-5
See zimmerstewart website or Contact Us for more details.
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