Oscar Nemon was born in Osijek, Yugoslavia [now Croatia] on 13 March 1906, the elder son of Mavro and Eugenia Nemon, members of the local Jewish community. Nemon was educated at Osijek, before applying to the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna [Austria]. Although unsuccessful in his application, he still stayed in Vienna for some time, and whilst there met and later sculpted Sigmund Freud and Princess Bonaparte. Nemon also studied in Paris [France], and in 1925 won a bursary to the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels [Belgium], where he was awarded the gold medal for sculpture. Just before the outbreak of war in 1939 Nemon came to Britain, and married Patricia Villiers-Stuart; they had one son and two daughters.

Exhibitions of Nemon's work were held in principal capitals of Europe, and examples of his sculptures are in the House of Commons, Windsor Castle, the London Guildhall, Somerville College and the Union, Oxford. He is perhaps best known for his series of sculptures of Sir Winston Churchill, but his other sitters include: Queen Elizabeth II; Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother; [Maurice] Harold Macmillan [later 1st Lord Stockton]; 1st Lord Beaverbrook [earlier Max Aitken]; Sigmund Freud; Sir Max Beerbohm; 1st Lord Montgomery of Alamein; Dwight D Eisenhower; Baroness Thatcher; Lord Shinwell; Lord Portal of Hungerford. Nemon died on 13 April 1985.