Charlie Smith: the new Rembrandt Bugatti
It was a series of fortuitous incidents that led Old Etonian Charlie Smith, 32, to the unlikely career high of sculpting the Obamas’ dog. ‘Actually, quite funnily, it all began with Tatler,’ says Smith, this century’s Rembrandt Bugatti, the stylish society Milanese animal sculptor. One day, the magazine was being leafed through by the former US Ambassador to Spain and Andorra, James Costos. He spotted a sculpture he liked the look of, by a relative unknown: Smith. A surprise commission was set up for his partner, interior designer Michael S. Smith – who was behind Obama’s White House makeover – of their beloved Labradoodle, Jasper. ‘And yes, I knew that they knew Obama, but I never really considered that he might, one day, see the sculpture I’d done for his friends,’ he says.
But the former president did see it: ‘and he really liked it – so when his dog, Bo, died last year they commissioned me for his 60th birthday present,’ Smith explains. Naturally, Smith, who works between Queen’s Park and Dorset, sculpted Bo to the audiobook of Michelle Obama’s bes-selling memoir Becoming. ‘It was a race against time. I had two months but the foundry needed four weeks… it was tight.’
Obama was generous enough to send a thank you note afterward – only it was misdelivered. ‘So it turned up at my neighbour’s house in Dorset – and they couldn’t work out who it was for… So they sat on it for three months,’ Smith grimaces.
Not bad for for an artist who started out, aged 18, selling a ceramic horse’s head, followed by packs of sleek labradors, wire-haired lurchers and noble steeds. But now he is branching into British and African wildlife, the theme of his inaugural October 2022 solo exhibition, Wider Horizons, at the Coningsby Gallery in Fitzrovia (24-29 October).
And as far an artistic likeness or comparison goes, Smith, humble to a tee, is adamant: ‘It doesn’t feel right coming from me,’ of similarities drawn between his work and Bugattis’. A certain newspaper baron who displays the family’s beloved bronze pup by Smith on a plinth in their marble sculpture gallery, might disagree – as would a very well known British actor and a member of a Middle Eastern royal family. Smith’s lips are sealed. These days, following trips to Kenya and South Africa, Smith is more invested in sculpting wild animals from life – this sculpting star is on its ascent. charliesmithsculpture.co.uk (AS)
