Frederick Edward McWilliam trained at the Slade School of Fine Art, London from 1928 to 1931, and subsequently in Paris, from 1931 to 1932. He became a member of the English Surrealists in 1938, and was a member of the Royal Academy in London from 1940 to 1945. In 1949 he became a member of the London Group. His dextrous skill enabled him to work in materials including wood, stone, bronze and plastics, producing sculptures based on diverse sources of inspiration, such as Brancusi, Henry Moore and Giacometti. He also modelled a number of portraits. Human figures are a constant motif in his work. McWilliam is noted for his hieratic, etiolated figure of Princess Macha, created while in hospital in Derry in Northern Ireland. The figure's small head accentuates the development of the body, which features a number of elements drawn from Celtic art. His work featured in the main European sculpture exhibitions: London, Antwerp-Middelheim and Sonsbeek, and at the São Paulo Biennale of 1957. 'Resistance III', a unique sculpture cast in 1962, is a superb example of McWilliam's particularly idiosyncratic sculpture from the early 1960s. Described by Mel Gooding as "mechanomorphic bronze figures…with a remarkable formal unity", this phase of McWilliam's career was dominated by angular figures and animals with forms derived from engine and machine forms. With an ironic commentary on Henry Moore's reclining figures of the period, McWilliam's sculptures suggest movement, motion, even aggression as in the case of 'Resistance III'. Similar figures to 'Resistance III' include 'Rhinoceros' (1961) and 'Animus' (1962), and continues on from 'Resistance II' from the previous year, 1961. The subject of 'Resistance III' is a bird about to launch into flight or just touching onto the ground. With wings stretched out behind its body and neck and head arched forward, the bird seems taut with dynamic energy, straining with potential movement.