Royal Sculptor Frances Segelman has created a portrait of the actor, writer, presenter and ‘Traitor’ Richard E. Grant in front of an audience at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, the church long known as the Actors’ Church.
The event took place on Sunday 18 October. All proceeds from the event have been donated to charity, with Richard E. Grant choosing Longfield Hospice in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, as his nominated charity.
Segelman, who is always immaculate despite the messiness of clay, wore a spectacular red sequined dress by Kruszynska. Working from life, with the sitter next to the artist, her likenesses are astounding. The clay head took shape over the course of the evening. A Q&A followed, in which both discussed the process, the experience of working live, and the odd, close relationship between artist and subject.
Speed is her trademark. Segelman, who is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors, is known for quickly and publicly building a good likeness of the subject, allowing spectators to watch a face emerge from the material. Grant, for once, is not the performer. He is the one being looked at, for a change in silence, and that reversal is the point of the evening.
Her sitters list is long. She has made portraits of the King, the late Queen, Prince Philip, the Princess Royal, the Duke of Kent and the Duchess of Edinburgh, and more recently Dame Judi Dench, Ray Winstone, Lord Blunkett, Sir Simon Rattle, Dame Joan Collins, Lord Fellowes, Dame Joanna Lumley and Bruce Oldfield. Sir Derek Jacobi has sat for her too.
Largely self-taught, Frances moved to London in 1970, took sculpture classes and found she had a feeling for clay. Her career picked up in 1993, when Harrods commissioned a series of bronzes to sell in its Knightsbridge store, and early portraits included the musicians Yehudi Menuhin, Nigel Kennedy and Paul Tortelier. Her bronze of the Leeds United footballer Billy Bremner was unveiled at Elland Road in 1999.
A quieter strand of her work is devoted to Holocaust survivors. She has made portraits of Sir Ben Helfgott, Arek Hersh, Lily Ebert and Zigi Shipper, tributes that also help keep their testimony available to later generations.
The Longfield Hospice in Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire, provides specialist care for people with life-limiting illness across the local community. It is a free-of-charge service offering Hospice at Home, Counselling, Bereavement Support, and Living Well Services to individuals across Gloucestershire. The organisation could not provide this support when it matters most without the community’s support, as 85% of their funding comes from activities and donations.
Works by the painter Victoria Perloff and the sculptor Josette Perloff were exhibited alongside a small exhibition of contemporary portraiture and figurative art for the occasion.
Top Photo: P C Robinson © Artlyst 2026