Book looks at life of sculptor stolen as baby by Nazis
The life and work of the sculptor behind Ludlow’s Doves of Peace war memorial has been revealed in a new biography charting his dramatic flight from war-torn Europe and subsequent rise to prominence.
Renowned sculptor Walenty Pytel created the Ludlow war memorial in Castle Square which was erected in 2000 after being commissioned by the town’s branch of the Royal British Legion.
The Jubilee Fountain Sculpture at the Houses of Parliament, marking the 25th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne, and 'Take Off, Three Egrets in Flight' outside Birmingham Airport are two of his best-known works.
Now his sometimes harrowing life story is recounted in 'Walenty Pytel: Life|Art|Sculpture,' a collaborative project between writer Catherine A Gilling and photographer Jason Hodges.
It tells how, as a blond-haired, blue-eyed baby, born in occupied Poland during the Second World War, the Nazis stole him from his mother and gave him to a Gestapo officer and his childless wife. The intention was that he should be brought up as a 'true' Aryan.
There the young Walenty would have remained, had it not been for the bravery of his mother Jadwiga. Having escaped from a prison camp, she managed to snatch him back while he was asleep in his pram in the couple’s garden.
The young mother and her son then embarked on a dangerous, epic journey, fleeing over the Alps into Italy. Eventually, Pytel arrived as a five-year-old refugee in England, where he has lived since 1945.
Now aged 80, Pytel suffered a stroke in 2007 after being seriously injured in a fall from the roof of his country house, and the accident has blurred some of his earliest memories.
The book is billed as the only authorised biography of the sculptor.
Gilling said: “Walenty’s early history was pieced together by surviving relatives on his mother’s side who now live in Russia and consider themselves to be fully Russian.
"His good friends of many decades have no idea of his challenging start in life or even of his darker moods, recognising him only as the outgoing, spirited eccentric artist that they know and love.”
Pytel’s prodigious talent was recognised early on when he was accepted as a student by Hereford Art College at just 15.
He married a fellow art college student from a farming family from the Leominster area. They had two children but although they later divorced they still live together near Ross-on-Wye.
"Walenty Pytel Life|Art|Sculpture" is £35 and published by Fugue Visions.
