Clare Sheridan

Sitter in 10 portraits
A cousin of Sir Winston Churchill whom she embarrassed with her wild behaviour. She married in 1910 and had three children, one of whom died in 1914. She modelled an angel for her child's grave and discovered a talent for sculpture. After her husband's death she exhibited her sculptures, including one of Churchill. An admirer of communism, she visited the Soviet Union in 1920. She sculpted Lenin and Trotsky, later publishing her diary. She went to Mexico and America, where she settled, becoming friends with Charlie Chaplin and turning to journalism. Her second trip to Russia, in 1923, was disillusioning. She took her children to live in Turkey and then Algeria and continued to sculpt and write.