Benjamin C Dearnley                                           Fragments of our time

The Tennis Girl poster made Gold 

The original model for the iconic Tennis girl poster sculpted in gold

This commission came about through Chris Nightingale, the original art director of the 1970's poster, asking me to create for him the statue in gold. The finished sculpture was unveiled at the Saatchi Gallery in London with the Mail Online doing a nice cover story on this special piece of Art history. The gallery shows the making of the sculpture with the life casting sessions with Fiona, the original poster girl model.

The process

Working from a life cast of the original model for the 1970's poster Ben was able to create an authentic piece of popular art history with this iconic work now held in a private collection.

Bespoke creative solutions


The very nature of capturing a moment in time in photography is one we can all relate to but when it comes to turning that into a 3D piece of fine art, that takes something else altogether. Why not invest in a bespoke hand made piece of fine art by Ben and commission that special piece for your own home or work place or garden. 

AN ICON AWAKENS
The Untold Story of the Image that Defined an Era
One of the most iconic images of the 20th century has been recreated as a lifesize gold statue.
The Tennis Girl, a cheeky photograph of a girl on a tennis court with one hand on her bare bottom, swept the world as an Athena poster in the 1980s, selling more than 2 million copies. The man who brought this famous image to the public, Christopher Nightingale, has worked with UK sculptor Ben Dearnley to recreate the pose using the original ‘Tennis Girl’, Fiona Walker, as a life model for the sculpture.
The statue was launched at the Saatchi Gallery, London, on 30 June, and will now tour the UK.
Chris and his business partner, Martin Elliott, produced a small run of poster/calendars for local businesses in the late 1970s. But the myth of the Tennis Girl did not begin until Athena started selling the photograph as a poster in the 1980s under license from Chris and Martin. The original image was commissioned by one of Chris’s clients, Seymour Packaging, as part of a 1977 promotional calendar for his company.
The statue was created as part of Chris’s book about the image and the untold story behind it. Fiona, the original tennis girl, was cast in plaster by Ben to get the authentic dimensions and pose of the photograph. He then copied the plaster casts in clay around a steel armature. This was then cast in cold-cast bronze and covered in gold leaf.

Get in touch to see how we can make history with your idea brought to life.

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