Reg Butler (1913-1981) worked as a blacksmith. He didn't begin to sculpt seriously until the late 1940s and in his early work used his forging and welding skills. He then modelled in clay, plaster or wax, casting the sculptures himself in a thin, lightweight bronze raised off the ground on low metal grids. He became one of the leading sculptors of the 1950s. About Girl he said: 'quite honestly, one of the most exciting things in the world is a girl, and my sculptures rightly or wrongly tend very often to be a celebration of their effect' (1958). Towards the end of his career, he made a series of lifelike, flesh coloured nudes, posing on circular beds: 'perhaps I seek a relationship between myself and the fetish, the sculpture. I make, or try to make a sculpture as alive as I can' (1974).