Sven Berlin

Sven Berlin watercolour drawing of a maiden head, British, Mid Century artist

Ronald Searle, CBE HRWS (British, 1920 – 2011) Pitcher; The Dodger’s catcher; and a drawing of the field positions on the day A set of three baseball studies Pencil on paper 5.1/4 x ...

Edmond Xavier Kapp (British, 1890 – 1978) Listeners Inkpen Signed, inscribed and date ‘Listeners / Kapp 59’ (lower left) 7.5/8 x 10.1/2 in. (19.4 x 26.7 cm.) Edmond Kapp was born in Islington, London, on 5 November 1890, of American and German Jewish parentage. He gave himself the middle initial ‘X’ – sometimes said to stand for Xavier – to distinguish himself from his father Emil Kapp, who was a wine merchant. However, his parents called him ‘Eddie’ while his wife and friends knew him as ‘Peter’. During his early years, Kapp was continually ill and, while convalescing, entertained himself by drawing at home. As his health improved, he attended Dame Alice Owen’s School, Islington (1903-10), with periods at Berlin University (1909) and L’Institut Français pour les Etrangers, Paris (1909). He then read Languages at Christ’s College, Cambridge (1910-13), though spent most of his time writing and drawing. Kapp took a studio in London, and worked intensively until the outbreak of the First World War, contributing to the Daily News, the Onlooker and other periodicals. During the war, he served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment on the Western Front, and then in Intelligence, rising to the position of Staff Captain on Haig’s Staff. Finally, he founded and directed the Neutral Press Counter-propaganda Section. In 1919, Kapp returned to London and, after abortive periods at three art schools, worked alone. In that year, he made his name with an exhibition of caricatures, held at Furst’s Gallery, London, and accompanied by a catalogue introduced by Max Beerbohm. This soon led to contracts with three London periodicals and a book of caricatures, Personalities, published by Martin Secker. Through the 1920s and 30s, his drawings of musicians and other personalities appeared in a wide variety of periodicals, most notably Time & Tide; were collected in further volumes; and were exhibited at the Leicester Galleries. He considered himself to be a ‘character-portraitist’, producing images of psychological not satirical power, and disliking the term ‘caricature’. Between the wars, Kapp developed other aspects of his artistic talents, the desire to study and the search for subject matter often taking him abroad. For instance, work at the British Academy, Rome, under Antonio Sciortino...

Joan Cardona Lladós (1877-1957) - Modernist Paris scene - Mixed media (charcoal and white wax). Drawing measurements 40x29 cm. Frame measurements 66x54 cm. He was born in Barcelona on June 30, 1877, he was registered with the name of Juan Bautista José Pedro. His parents Josep Cardona i Farré (Sant Salvador, 1852-Barcelona, ​​?) and Maria Lladós i Vidal (Isona, 1855-Barcelona, ​​1935) came from Sant Salvador de Toló and Isona, respectively, two towns very close to Tremp, in the Pallars Jussà region, close to the Lleida Pyrenees. The Cardona Lladós family was of humble origins, linked to the rural and peasant world. José Cardona and María Lladós married around 1876, when they were twenty-five and twenty-one years old respectively. The couple decided to improve their precarious situation by moving to live in Barcelona. In 1877 Joan Cardona was born in the family home, at 62 Mediana de San Pedro Street, in the Ribera neighborhood of Barcelona and very close to the Rec Comtal. Joan Cardona was the firstborn of three brothers. When he was six years old, his sister Consuelo was born (1883) and later his younger sister, María (1888), was born. Josep Cardona i Farré was a day laborer and lived at least until the birth of his third daughter, María, in 1888. Her death, for reasons unknown to us, would occur shortly after. After the death of Josep Cardona, León Farré i Duró (Isona, 1867-Barcelona, ​​1932) became part of the family nucleus with his mother María Lladós, who took care of the child Cardona and his sisters Consuelo and María. Farré learned to play the guitar and was the most extraordinary disciple of the composer and guitarist Francesc Tàrrega i Eixea (Vila-real, 1852-Barcelona, ​​1909). Joan Cardona had in her stepfather the man who instilled in her a special musical and artistic sensitivity. The young Cardona took classes at the Academia Baixas, inaugurated in 1892 by the painter Joan Baixas i Carreter and installed on Carrer del Pi, a private center where a good batch of leading Catalan Modernisme artists were trained. Cardona married Clemencia Parade Cazabat at the beginning of the century. Daughter of Carles Parade and Amara Cazabat, she was born in 1870 in Bagnères de Bigorre...

This feminist work of a nude gazing directly at the viewer, features graphite on mylar over cut paper, aligned to amplify the forms while maintaining the delicacy of the drawing. These recently discovered 1984 oversize works on mylar and archival papers were created with a live model. The series shows the last existing observational drawings prior to the artist's switch to working with her non- dominant left hand. As a feminist, Anastasi's main focus is presenting other women. Unlike the often objectified male gaze...