This following, recently unearthed, undated news clipping, which presumably was from the early 1950’s mentioned Ivan Mitford-Barberton at the end of the text
Wikipedia page for Ivan Mitford-Barberton
As David Chudy’s son I had never heard this name mentioned – so it comes as some surprise to see reference of David Chudy as ‘having made his first attempts’ (at sculpture) under Mitford Barberton.
Hard to believe the report was accurate because the first record I see of his having visited Cape Town was in 1947 while there are numerous photos of him sculpting well before then. And as a self taught, self motivated man, it would be uncharacteristic for David Chudy to have ‘studied under anyone. He picked things up simply by sharing space with others.
Ivan appears to have lived a fascinating life with many large scale architectural projects to his name. Clearly a major inspiration to David Chudy..
All that said – a google search for Ivan Mitford-Barberton reveals a few images of what he looked like. And a photo of David Chudy with unknown persons (below) , clearly featuring Cape fynbos vegetation set me thinking. The fellow to the right (with glasses) might well be Ivan – although I see confirmation that this is true. A side view of Ivan is also inserted below.
