Nude torso, olive wood, 1945. Private collection.
Writing in Dock Leaves (the forerunner of The Anglo-Welsh Review) in 1956, Jonah’s friend and fellow artist John Petts called this “Jonah’s first essay in sculpture… in a turner’s shop… Jonah bought a wooden pestle, feeling its simple bottle-shape right for carving. Back in camp at Sarafand [at the time, Jonah was posted to British Mandate Palestine], he gave all his spare time to carving his own Aphrodite, a simple torso, rich in form, brought into being with some grunts of despair and frequent consultations, but with complete devotion.”