Bonar Dunlop

[1] Born in Dunedin, the son of Francis Dunlop, who lectured in moral philosophy at the University of Otago and who was also a Presbyterian minister, he grew up on the family farm.

[2] At the farm, Dunlop learned to ride proficiently and developed a love of horses that never left him, clearly visible in his later sculptures and illustrations.

Here, in 1947, he married his teenage sweetheart from Vienna, Hilary Lennox Napier, an English dancer, and began a successful career as an illustrator, at that time mainly dramatic works for women's magazines and for books.

[5] In 1959 the family moved definitively to London where Dunlop thrived further as an illustrator, contributing to numerous high visibility advertising campaigns (Harrods, Rothmans, Lee Cooper, etc.).

[3][6] Although his primary career was as an illustrator and commercial artist, his real passion was for sculpture, and in the early 1970s he became a full-time sculptor, creating busts and sporting pieces, primarily of rugby players.