Collections Online

LAMBDA, Peter (Lambda was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1911: his father was a doctor and his mother was a psychoanalyst and pupil of Sigmund Freud (who later sat for Lambda in London for his portrait now in the Freud Museum). Lambda was educated largely in Vienna. He studied medicine before training as a sculptor, spending time in both Paris and Prague. By 1938, he had apparently achieved some success in Budapest as a sculptor and had a one-man show at the Tamas Gallery in May 1938. Later that year he moved to London. During the war Lambda worked for the Crown Film Unit and wrote propaganda scripts for the BBC. Finding time for sculpture when he could, he executed a quick sketch in clay of the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Kingsley Wood in 1939. A meeting with 'Nye' Bevan in 1945 paved the way for one of his most successful portrait heads which was commissioned for the Working Men's Institute in Tredegar. After the war Lambda worked briefly in industrial design for ICI. He had a great love of the theatre and it was at about this time that he began sculpting many leading figures of British theatre including Laurence Olivier. Lambda exhibited twice at the RA. He flourished as a writer for the theatre, television and film. He executed his final portrait bust in the 1980s, after which time his eyesight prevented him from doing more although he continued to write. He died in 1995.)