England - Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

Rose 15 [2021] original Pencil on 150gsm paper Image size: H:30 cm x W:20 cm Complete Size of Unframed Work: H:30 cm x W:20 cm x D:0.01cm Sold Unframed Please note that insitu i...

Graphite on paper, signed and dated Image size: 18 x 12 1/2 inches (46 x 32 cm) Mounted and framed The sitter for this portrait, Alfred Hardiman, was an English sculptor. Hardiman and Lyon were friends and met when they both attended the British School at Rome in the early 1920s. Hardiman won a London County Council Scholarship to the Royal College of Art in 1912, and three years later joined the Royal Academy School. After a period as an engineer's draughtsman in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, Hardiman resumed his studies and in 1920 was awarded the British Prix de Rome scholarship, spending two years at the British School at Rome. There he developed his style, a blend of naturalism and classicism influenced by Roman and Etruscan art and early fifth century Greek sculpture. Hardiman's best-known (but also most controversial) work is the Earl Haig Memorial on Whitehall in London. More universally admired are the heraldic lions flanking the main entrance to the City Hall, Norwich, a work which fully epitomises his style. He was appointed consultant sculptor to the building, having worked with one of the architects, Stephen Rowland Pierce, on the Haig Memorial. Hardiman also carved three large stone figures for the outside of the council chamber, and worked with other sculptors on the project including James Woodford and Eric Aumonier. Hardiman was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1936 and a full Academician in 1944. He became a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors in 1938 and the following year received their silver medal for his statue of Haig. In 1946 he won a gold medal for his bronze fountain figure for the New Council House, College Green, Bristol, which however was never erected. In 1918 he married Violet, daughter of Herbert Clifton White, of London, and had two daughters. He died at Stoke Poges on 17th April 1949. Robert Lyon...

Graphite on paper, signed and dated '13 Feb (19)19' bottom left Image size: 13 x 8 1/4 inches (33 x 21 cm) This is a portrait of a German airman that was done by the artist at the start of 1919. The artwork has been created on the reverse of a document from Adlershof, a German Air Park. This exact document is from the 'Airman Replacement Department' and is a request form for replacement parts for aircrafts - it asks the writer to specify the type and number of aircrafts, the type of engine and details of its propellers. Adlershof is a place with a long and famous history. Germany's first motorised aircraft took off from here at the beginning of the 20th century and the Wright brothers moved their company to the airfield in 1909 shortly after it was opened. In 1912 German Experimental Institute for Aviation was established and made the location it's headquarters. Indeed, pre-war it was often known as 'The cradle of German Aviation'. During the war the War ministry used the site for extensive military production and it is particularly well known for a series of competitions between various aviation firms' fighter aircraft designs that were held in 1918 and 1919. Even after the War had ended, work continued at Adlershof with the final flight competition being held between February and May 1919 (when this portrait was created). Eventually, the signing of the Versailles Treaty ended all military aircraft work for Germany and led to the dissolution of the Luffstreikrafte in May 1920. Karl Ludwig Nagel...

Bowens (British, fl. mid 20th Century) Cambridge: Centre of Scientific Research Pye Group Records Pye - Nixa - Mercury - Vanguard - EmArcy c. mid-late 1950s Haig Road in Cambridge, where Pye had their factory, was subsumed into Elizabeth Way and was a long way from King's College chapel. However that iconic building is used to illustrate the Cambridge connection. EmArcy Records is a jazz record...

Tetouanoui Man Albert Charles Dequene Pastel on paper, signed and dated 1933 lower left, titled upper right Image size: 23 x 18 inches (58.4 x 45.7 cm) Hand made ebonised and gilded ...

Graphite on paper, signed bottom left Image size: 7 1/2 x 9 3/4 inches (19 x 25cm) Contemporary frame A characterful portrait of a woman in profile. The artist has captured much of ...

Sketch of Finkel Stephen Andrews Born 1956 Ink on paper, signed bottom right Image size: 9 1/2 x 12 1/2 inches ( 23.5 x 31.5 cm ) Original Frame Andrews, a friend of American direct...

Watercolour on paper Paper size: 21 x 13.5 inches Signed lower right

James Stroudley 1906 -1985 Portrait of a Lady Graphite on paper Image size: 15 x 12 inches James Stroudley was born in London on 17 June 1906, the son of James Stroudley, showcard and ticket writer. He studied at Clapham School of Art (1923-27) and then at the Royal College of Art (1927-30), where his teachers included Alan Gwynne-Jones and William Rothenstein. As a recipient of the first Abbey Scholarship he was able to spend three years in Italy from 1930, where he absorbed the influences of Giotto and Piero della Francesca, and produced one of the last wholly satisfying decorative cycles by a Rome Scholar of the period. From 1934, he exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, and was elected to its membership in the following year. From the Second World War – in which he worked with the Camouflage Unit – Stroudley taught at St Martin’s School of Art and was a visiting lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools. Though he continued to live in London, his later work, exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1955, indicated regular painting trips to Kent and Sussex coasts. However, much of his later work was abstract. In 1971, his former student, Peter Coker...

Gertrude Braud 19th Century Watercolour on paper, initialled and dated 'Sep 29/69'. Image size: 9 1/2 x 6 3/4 inches (24 x 17 cm)

Pastel and graphite on paper Image size: 11 x 8 1/2 inches (28 x 21.5 cm) Mounted William Dring Dring was born with the forenames Dennis William, but was known colloquially as John. He was the brother of the artist James Dring. He married the painter Grace Elizabeth Rothwell...

James Stroudley 1906 -1985 Portrait of Julieta Graphite on paper, signed and inscribed '1931' Image size: 15 x 12 inches James Stroudley was born in London on 17 June 1906, the son of James Stroudley, showcard and ticket writer. He studied at Clapham School of Art (1923-27) and then at the Royal College of Art (1927-30), where his teachers included Alan Gwynne-Jones and William Rothenstein. As a recipient of the first Abbey Scholarship he was able to spend three years in Italy from 1930, where he absorbed the influences of Giotto and Piero della Francesca, and produced one of the last wholly satisfying decorative cycles by a Rome Scholar of the period. From 1934, he exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, and was elected to its membership in the following year. From the Second World War – in which he worked with the Camouflage Unit – Stroudley taught at St Martin’s School of Art and was a visiting lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools. Though he continued to live in London, his later work, exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1955, indicated regular painting trips to Kent and Sussex coasts. However, much of his later work was abstract. In 1971, his former student, Peter Coker...

James Stroudley 1906 -1985 Portrait of a Young Man Graphite on paper Image size: 18 x 16 inches James Stroudley was born in London on 17 June 1906, the son of James Stroudley, showcard and ticket writer. He studied at Clapham School of Art (1923-27) and then at the Royal College of Art (1927-30), where his teachers included Alan Gwynne-Jones and William Rothenstein. As a recipient of the first Abbey Scholarship he was able to spend three years in Italy from 1930, where he absorbed the influences of Giotto and Piero della Francesca, and produced one of the last wholly satisfying decorative cycles by a Rome Scholar of the period. From 1934, he exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, and was elected to its membership in the following year. From the Second World War – in which he worked with the Camouflage Unit – Stroudley taught at St Martin’s School of Art and was a visiting lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools. Though he continued to live in London, his later work, exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1955, indicated regular painting trips to Kent and Sussex coasts. However, much of his later work was abstract. In 1971, his former student, Peter Coker...

Graphite on paper, signed on reverse Image size: 11 x 9 1/2 inches (28 x 24 cm) Mounted and framed Ernest Proctor Born in Tynemouth, Northumberland, the son of a scientist, Ernest was educated at Bootham Friends' School in York and then came to Newlyn in 1907 to study with Stanhope Forbes. He quickly become recognized as the best student of the School. He acted as Assistant to Stanhope Forbes and Elizabeth Forbes...

Graphite on paper Image size: 10 1/4 x 8 1/2 (26 x 22 cm) Mounted Drawing was at the heart of all of his artistic practice. A friend once recalled an anecdote that out on a walk he ...

Charcoal on paper, signed and dated '1888' bottom right Image size: 9 x 7 1/2 inches (22.75 x 19 cm) Period frame The half-length portrait depicts the subject sat, wearing a white s...

Collections: J. Goodfriend, USA. Brown wash and pencil on laid paper Framed dimensions: 13.25 x 11.75 inches This powerful drawing was made at the time that Romney was painting the famous group portrait of the Gower Children now in Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal. Romney was a bold and incisive draughtsman who made numerous rich brown ink studies, principally for historical compositions; by contrast, comparatively few studies linked directly to his portraits survive. The existence of a group of studies for the Gower Children underscores its importance to Romney. The sitters were the five youngest of the eight children of Granville, 2nd Earl Gower who, at the time the portrait was commissioned, was President of the Council in Lord North’s government and one of the best-connected and most influential people in England. The present drawing which is a large scale treatment of the composition in its final form perfectly distils Romney’s conceit: the younger children dancing whilst their elder sister, in the guise of a Bacchante plays the tambourine. The bold and dramatic study underlines both the artistic confidence and classical grandeur Romney gained during his trip to Italy between 1773 and 1775. The commission from Granville, 2nd Earl Gower to paint five of his children came shortly after Romney’s Continental tour. The initial idea, as represented by the present drawing, seems to have been to paint Lady Anne, the figure on the right of the composition playing the tambourine, who was the youngest of Gower’s first four children by his second wife Lady Louisa Egerton and who married the Rev. Edward Vernon Harcourt, later Archbishop of York, with three of her younger half-siblings by Gower’s third wife, Lady Susanna Stewart: at the left Lady Georgina, who became Countess of St Germans following her marriage to the Hon. William Eliot; at the right Lady Charlotte Sophia, later Duchess of Beaufort and in the centre Lady Susanna, later Countess of Harrowby. Romney added a fifth child to the finished portrait, Gower’s son: Lord Granville, later created Viscount Granville and Earl Granville. In Italy Romney had produced a large number of studies of classical antiquities and old master paintings. The commission from Gower offered Romney the opportunity to explore a complex multi-figural group, putting into practice the kind of ambitious classical quotations that Reynolds was currently exploiting. In 1773 Reynolds had completed the remarkable group portrait of the Montgomery Sisters, now in the Tate Gallery, London, which showed them adorning a herm of the Roman god Hymen; the composition used a garland to link the three figures who were shown in classical costume dancing at the foot of a Roman sculpture. Scholars have long pointed to a similar sources for the two compositions: the works of Nicolas Poussin. Whilst the Montgomery Sisters is based, in part, on a Bacchanal now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, the Gower Children has always been associated with Poussin’s Dance to the Music of Time, now in the Wallace Collection, London. It seems more likely that Romney was looking to an antique source in the form of the Borghese Dancers, a Roman relief, then in Palazzo Borghese in Rome. Romney would have seen the relief of interlocking, dancing maidens and would also have known Guido Reni’s Aurora...

D'après Renoir by Georges Manzana Pissarro (1871-1961) Pencil on paper 19.5 x 25.8 cm (7 ⁵/₈ x 10 ¹/₈ inches) Titled and signed lower right This work is accompanied by a certificate...

Graphite on paper, inscribed on original backing Image size: 6 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches (16.5 x 14 cm) Mounted This is a delightful graphite drawing by the artist Joseph Nash that depict...

SOLD UNFRAMED Montagnard des Environs de Szczaronica by Franciszek Tepa (1829-1889) Watercolour 26.3 x 20 cm (10 ⅜ x 7 ⅞ inches) Signed and dated lower right, F. Tepa 1873 Artist ...

Watercolour on paper Paper size: 10 x 13.75 inches Framed size: 18.75 x 21.5 inches Signed lower left

James Stroudley 1906-1985 Portrait of the Artist's Wife Graphite on paper Image size: 13 x 10 inches Unframed James Stroudley was born in London on 17 June 1906, the son of James St...

Studies of the Head of a Young Girl by Georges Manzana Pissarro (1871-1961) Charcoal and colour crayon on paper 26.3 x 20.3 cm (10 ⅜ x 8 inches) Signed lower right, manzana. Pissarro...

European School Late 18th Century Portrait of a Lady Pastel on paper, mounted on canvas Image size: 28 x 23 inches Contemporary style frame Provenance: Ernst Museum Auction This pastel portrait of a lady dates from the late eighteenth century. She is pictured in a white muslin dress...

Watercolour on paper, signed and dated '1870' lower left Image size: 5 x 6 1/2 inches (13 x 16.5 cm)

Frank Jameson 1899 - 1968 Self Portrait Graphite on paper, signed lower right Image size: 15 x 9 inches Contemporary frame Frank Jameson was born in London and later moved to Birmingham where he attended evening classes in drawing and painting at Birmingham Art School. By day he worked as an insurance salesman. During the First World War he became an officer in the Worcester Regiment and was in charge of building bridges and block houses. He returned to the Midlands but then travelled widely by rail, eventually discovering St Ives where he was inspired by the stunning scenery. He stayed and rented the Loft Studio. He also became a member of the St Ives Society of Artists and exhibited frequently with his fellow artists, especially John Park...

Pencil on paper Paper size: 16 x 10 inches Framed size: 25.75 x 19.25 inches Signed lower right

Graphite on paper, monogrammed lower left Image size: 6 x 6 1/2 inches (15.25 x 16.5 cm) Contemporary style handmade gilt frame Henry Perronet Briggs Henry Perronet Briggs RA wa...

Graphite on paper Image size: 11 ¾ x 8 ½ inches (30 x 21.5 cm) Original frame This superbly-drawn portrait highlights the artist’s undeniable skill as a portrait artist, particularl...

French School 18th Century Portrait of a Young Man Charcoal and pastel on paper Image size: 11 x 7 inches Contemporary gilt frame

Graphite on paper Image size: 5 1/2 x 20 1/2 inches (14 x 52 cm) Framed This sketch is a portrait of Thomas Gotch is by his lifelong friend and confidante, Jane Ross, whom he met at...

John Raphael Smith 1751 - 1812 Portrait of a Young Lady Pastel on paper on canvas stretcher Image size: 9 x 7 inches (23 x 18 cm) Gilt frame

Graphite on paper, signed lower right Image size: 17 x 21 inches (43.25 x 53.25 cm) Contemporary frame James Stroudley Stroudley was born in London on 17 June 1906, the son of James Stroudley, showcard and ticket writer. He studied at Clapham School of Art (1923-27) and then at the Royal College of Art (1927-30), where his teachers included Alan Gwynne-Jones and William Rothenstein. As a recipient of the first Abbey Scholarship he was able to spend three years in Italy from 1930, where he absorbed the influences of Giotto and Piero della Francesca, and produced one of the last wholly satisfying decorative cycles by a Rome Scholar of the period. From 1934, he exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, and was elected to its membership in the following year. From the Second World War – in which he worked with the Camouflage Unit – Stroudley taught at St Martin’s School of Art and was a visiting lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools. Though he continued to live in London, his later work, exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1955, indicated regular painting trips to Kent and Sussex coasts. However, much of his later work was abstract. In 1971, his former student, Peter Coker, paid homage to Stroudley by including his work in the exhibition ‘Pupil & Masters’, held at Westgate House, Long Melford, Suffolk. Stroudley married three times, and his wives included the fashion artist to the Sun newspaper...

Pastel on paper Image size: 6 x 7 inches (15.25 x 17.75 cm) Mounted Peter Gardner Peter Gardner was born in London in 1921. He studied at the Hammersmith School of Art between 193...

Graphite on paper, signed bottom right Image size: 13 x 8 3/4 inches (33 x 22.25 cm) Original frame Dora Thacher Clarke, later Dora Middleton, (1895–1989) was a British sculptor and wood carver who also wrote about, and promoted African art. Clarke was born in Harrow in Middlesex. Her father, Joseph Thacher Clarke was an American architect. Clarke won a scholarship that allowed her to attend the Slade School of Fine Art. Aged fifteen, Clarke initially studied at the Slade on a part-time basis for three days each week throughout 1910 and 1911 but during 1915 and 1916 she studied sculpture there as a full-time student. Clarke first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1923 and continued to do so until 1959. In the early 1930s she was a regular exhibitor in group shows at the Goupil Gallery and in March 1937 had her first solo show at the French Gallery. She also exhibited at the Paris Salon and with the Royal Society of British Artists. Clarke's works included bronze castings, memorials and wood sculptures, often of African heads. For example she was commissioned to sculpt the posthumous portrait bust of Sir Walter Morley Fletcher. The most notable of her memorials is the panel and medallion tribute to Joseph Conrad at Bishopsbourne in Kent, which was unveiled in 1927. Clarke also wrote about, and promoted African art and spent a year, between 1927 and 1928 in Kenya, where she made many drawings which when she returned to London she used as the basis for wood carvings and bronzes of tribal figures. Wood carving became her technique of choice, often working with hardwoods and, on occasion, sperm whale teeth. Clarke married Admiral Gervase B Middleton in 1938 but rarely exhibited work under her married name. During World War II, Clarke was commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee to produce a portrait medallion depicting a serviceman who had been awarded the George Cross. This proved to be the only portrait medallion acquired for the WAAC collection. Sculptures by Clarke are held in various museums, including the Ashmolean Museum which also holds a 1936 portrait of her by Orovida Camille Pissarro.

James Stroudley 1906 -1985 Portrait of Adriane Madami Graphite on paper, signed and inscribed '1930, Adriane Madami, Assisi' Image size: 19 x 16 inches James Stroudley was born in...

James Stroudley 1906 -1985 Florentine Lady Graphite on paper, signed and inscriber '1932 Florence' Image size: 24 x 19 inches James Stroudley was born in London on 17 June 1906, the son of James Stroudley, showcard and ticket writer. He studied at Clapham School of Art (1923-27) and then at the Royal College of Art (1927-30), where his teachers included Alan Gwynne-Jones and William Rothenstein. As a recipient of the first Abbey Scholarship he was able to spend three years in Italy from 1930, where he absorbed the influences of Giotto and Piero della Francesca, and produced one of the last wholly satisfying decorative cycles by a Rome Scholar of the period. From 1934, he exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, and was elected to its membership in the following year. From the Second World War – in which he worked with the Camouflage Unit – Stroudley taught at St Martin’s School of Art and was a visiting lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools. Though he continued to live in London, his later work, exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1955, indicated regular painting trips to Kent and Sussex coasts. However, much of his later work was abstract. In 1971, his former student, Peter Coker...

James Stroudley 1906 -1985 Florentine Gent Graphite on paper, signed and inscriber '1931 Florence' Image size: 24 x 18 inches Framed James Stroudley was born in London on 17 June 1906, the son of James Stroudley, showcard and ticket writer. He studied at Clapham School of Art (1923-27) and then at the Royal College of Art (1927-30), where his teachers included Alan Gwynne-Jones and William Rothenstein. As a recipient of the first Abbey Scholarship he was able to spend three years in Italy from 1930, where he absorbed the influences of Giotto and Piero della Francesca, and produced one of the last wholly satisfying decorative cycles by a Rome Scholar of the period. From 1934, he exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, and was elected to its membership in the following year. From the Second World War – in which he worked with the Camouflage Unit – Stroudley taught at St Martin’s School of Art and was a visiting lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools. Though he continued to live in London, his later work, exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1955, indicated regular painting trips to Kent and Sussex coasts. However, much of his later work was abstract. In 1971, his former student, Peter Coker...

James Stroudley 1906 -1985 Portrait of a Boy Graphite on paper Image size: 18 x 14 inches James Stroudley was born in London on 17 June 1906, the son of James Stroudley, showcard and ticket writer. He studied at Clapham School of Art (1923-27) and then at the Royal College of Art (1927-30), where his teachers included Alan Gwynne-Jones and William Rothenstein. As a recipient of the first Abbey Scholarship he was able to spend three years in Italy from 1930, where he absorbed the influences of Giotto and Piero della Francesca, and produced one of the last wholly satisfying decorative cycles by a Rome Scholar of the period. From 1934, he exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, and was elected to its membership in the following year. From the Second World War – in which he worked with the Camouflage Unit – Stroudley taught at St Martin’s School of Art and was a visiting lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools. Though he continued to live in London, his later work, exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1955, indicated regular painting trips to Kent and Sussex coasts. However, much of his later work was abstract. In 1971, his former student, Peter Coker...

Black ink on paper Paper size: 8.25 x 10.5 inches Framed size: 20.75 x 21.75 inches Signed lower left Provenance: Private collection, Somerset

Watercolour on paper Paper size: 7.5 x 10.5 inches Framed size: 15 x 17.5 inches Signed lower left

CONRAD FELIXMÜLLER 1897 - 1977 Dresden 1897 - 1977 Berlin (German) Title: Two Men Zwei Männer, 1919 Technique: Monogrammed India Ink Drawing on thin JW Zanders Laid Paper Paper ...

ALEXANDER EVGENEVICH IACOVLEFF (YAKOVLEV) 1887-1938 Saint Petersburg 1887-1938 Paris (Russian) Title: Portrait of a Girl, 1934 Technique: Ori...

SOLD UNFRAMED Paysan Centenaire, Soldat de l'Armée du Général Kosenisko by Franciszek Tepa (1829-1889) Watercolour 26.3 x 30 cm (10 ⅜ x 11 ¾ inches) Initialed and dated lower left, ...

SOLD UNFRAMED Jeune Montagnarde des Environs de Truskaniva by Franciszek Tepa (1829-1889) Watercolour 26 x 20.5 cm (10 ¼ x 8 ⅛ inches) Signed and dated lower left, Franciszek Tepa ...

William Dring 1904-1990 Ink on paper Image size: 15 1/4 x 11 1/4 inches (38.9 x 28.5cm) The artwork portrays a man in profile, meticulously rendered in ink on paper. Dring pays close attention to the contours of the skin and hair. The intricate facial details prompt viewers to contemplate themes of identity and expression, while the minimalistic background underscores the figure’s separation from its surroundings. William Dring Dring was born with the forenames Dennis William, but was known colloquially as John. He was the brother of the artist James Dring. He married the painter Grace Elizabeth...

Red chalk on paper Image size: 21 x 14 1/2 inches (54 x 37 cm) Gilt frame James Stroudley Stroudley was born in London on 17 June 1906, the son of James Stroudley, showcard and ticket writer. He studied at Clapham School of Art (1923-27) and then at the Royal College of Art (1927-30), where his teachers included Alan Gwynne-Jones and William Rothenstein. As a recipient of the first Abbey Scholarship he was able to spend three years in Italy from 1930, where he absorbed the influences of Giotto and Piero della Francesca, and produced one of the last wholly satisfying decorative cycles by a Rome Scholar of the period. From 1934, he exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists, and was elected to its membership in the following year. From the Second World War – in which he worked with the Camouflage Unit – Stroudley taught at St Martin’s School of Art and was a visiting lecturer at the Royal Academy Schools. Though he continued to live in London, his later work, exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1955, indicated regular painting trips to Kent and Sussex coasts. However, much of his later work was abstract. In 1971, his former student, Peter Coker, paid homage to Stroudley by including his work in the exhibition ‘Pupil & Masters’, held at Westgate House, Long Melford, Suffolk. Stroudley married three times, and his wives included the fashion artist to the Sun newspaper...

Edwin Long 1829 - 1891 Portrait Studies Graphite on paper Image size: 4 x 8 inches (10 x 20.5 cm) Framed Edwin Longsden Long RA (1829-1891, British) wa...

V Ward Unknown Officer in Trench Cap Watercolour and pencil Signed and dated 1918, lower right Image size: 12 x 10 inches

Pencil on paper Paper size: 13.5 x 10 inches Framed size: 22.25 x 18.5 inches Signed lower middle

HENRYK BERLEWI 1894-1964 Warsaw 1894-1964 Paris (Polish/French) Title: Woman with Long Hair, 1955 Technique: Original Signed Colour Pencil drawing on pap...

JOSEPH CSAKY 1888-1971 (Hungarian/French) Title: Woman picking Apples Technique: Original Hand Signed Coloured Pencil drawing on Van Gelder Zonen paper size: 42 x 25.2 cm...

Signed pencil on paper portrait drawing by Italian artist Amedeo Clemente Modigliani. The portrait is of Berthe Lipchitz who was the wife of Modigliani's friend, the sculptor Jacques Lipchitz. This work is a study for "Portrait of Jacques & Berthe Lipchitz" which hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. Signature: Signed lower right Dimensions: Framed: 26.75"x18.25" Unframed: 18.75"x12.25" Provenance: The collection of Leopold Survage The collection of Dimitri Snegaroff The collection of Leopold Zborowski Galerie Charpentier - Paris 1958 Private french collection Galerie Pierre Levy - Paris Private collection - United Kingdom Exhibited: Galerie Charpentier - Cent Tableaux de Modigliani - Paris, 1958 Les Peintres de Zborowski - ~Foundation L'Hermitage, Lausanne 1994 Amedeo Modigliani Exhibition - Museo d'Arte Moderna, Lugano 1999 Amedeo Modigliani was born into a middle-class Jewish family and was the brother of Eugenio Modigliani, who later became the leader of the Italian socialist workers’ party prior to the rise of fascism. Modigliani suffered from poor health as a child and contracted pleurisy in 1895, followed in 1898 by typhus with pulmonary complications, which culminated in tuberculosis in 1901. He moved to Livorno to study under Guglielmo Micheli, who had himself been a pupil of Giovanni Fattori, one of the Macchiaioli group of painters who worked in strong colour patches (macchie) to achieve vivid light and colour effects; their approach came as a reaction against academic art in Italy and, in much the same way as the French Impressionists, they advocated painting from nature rather than aspiring to communicate any particular message or ideology. In 1902, Modigliani enrolled at the academy of fine arts in Florence. He travelled to Rome and Venice in 1903, where he devoted the bulk of his day to visiting museums. At around this time he started to read Dante, dreaming no doubt of the Vita Nuova; he also devoured the works of Leopardi, Carducci, d’Annunzio, Spinoza and Nietzsche. In 1906, Modigliani moved to Paris, lodging at the Rue Caulaincourt. At that juncture, nothing about him appeared to presage the brilliant career that was to follow. His arrival in the artists’ quarter, then known colloquially as the maquis - the labyrinthine tangle of narrow streets around today’s Avenue Junot in Montmartre - went virtually unnoticed by the artists already living and working there, including Picasso, Braque and Derain. Modigliani’s painting made next to no immediate impact and he was recognised primarily on account of his frail constitution, flashing eyes, innate elegance and intellectual prowess. He was accepted in the community that was Montmartre but never belonged to any particular ‘set’ or circle, and there is no record of his ever having been invited to Pablo Picasso’s studio, the famous ‘wash house’. The literate and highly articulate Modigliani opted instead for the companionship of Maurice Utrillo, an instinctual painter of whom it could charitably have been said that his conversation was, at best, limited. Nonetheless, Modigliani and ‘Litrillo’ (as Utrillo was commonly known to the street urchins - the ‘p’tits poulbots’) began to frequent the cabarets and dance halls of the Butte de Montmartre, and the nefarious hashish dens - post-Baudelaire ‘institutions’, frequented in the main by out-of-work writers and talentless artists. Modigliani developed an addiction, which, compounded by his alcoholism, took its toll. It also transformed him from an artist of limited ability into one devoid of bourgeois scruples. In his monograph, Modigliani: Sa Vie et Son Oeuvre, written in 1926 shortly after Modigliani’s death, André Salmon hinted at a ‘pact with the devil’. While somewhat overstating the case, this rather unpromising painter from Livorno metamorphosed virtually overnight into an artist of rare ability and sensitivity. The turning-point came in 1907, when Modigliani met Paul Alexandre, a doctor who befriended him, took him under his wing and purchased some of his work. The banal paintings he had turned out in Montmartre were suddenly superseded by exceptional works, produced first in Montmartre ( Cellist, 1909), and then in Montparnasse. In Montparnasse, Modigliani started to move in artistic circles, meeting Chaim Soutine, Marc Chagall, Jules Pascin and others, all of whom lived and worked in the building in the Rue Vaugirard known as ‘La Ruche’ (‘the beehive’). Then, in the Cité Falguière, he met the Romanian-born sculptor Constantin Brancusi, who encouraged him to take up sculpture, which he did, between 1909 and 1913. In 1914, several dealers, including the erstwhile poet Léopold Zborowski and the collector Paul Guillaume, tried with little success to market Modigliani’s paintings. From 1914 to 1916, Modigliani was caught up in a tempestuous affair with the English poet and journalist Beatrice Hastings. In 1917, however, he met Jeanne Hébuterne at the Colarossi Academy, who became his constant companion and model, and who gave birth to their daughter Jeanne in 1918. In 1918 and 1919, Modigliani and Jeanne spent time in Nice on the Côte d’Azur but by 1920 he was suffering from tubercular meningitis. His friends, Kisling and the Chilean Ortiz de Zarate, brought him and a pregnant Jeanne back to Paris, where he died on January 20 1920 in the Hôpital de la Charité. His last words were reputed to be: ‘Cara Italia’. Modigliani’s brother, by this time a socialist member of parliament, telegrammed instructions to ‘bury him as befits a prince’. Jeanne Hébuterne, a budding twenty-year-old painter, killed herself and her unborn child on the day of Modigliani’s funeral by jumping to her death from a fifth-floor window. Modigliani’s first paintings were undistinguished portraits in the Impressionist manner. After moving to Paris in 1907, his early work was influenced by the Swiss-born lithographer Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pablo Picasso, the latter then in his ‘blue’ period. From the onset, Modigliani’s principal preoccupation was the human figure. After the artistic (and literal) limbo of Montmartre, when his output was confined to a few Expressionist-like paintings of street life, the theatre and the circus, Modigliani suddenly erupted on the scene in 1909 with Cellist, a robust, well-constructed and vividly coloured canvas that utterly exceeded all prior expectations. He had not taken part in the protracted debates that took place nightly in Picasso’s studio, but he had superficially assimilated the Cubist ideas developed by Picasso and Georges Braque. Above all, Modigliani had been influenced by African art, which was a key feature of the Cubist movement. He succeeded in treading a fine line between the coolly analytical Cubist approach and the all-too-common European perception of African art as a succession of exaggerated facial grimaces. It would appear that Modigliani had always been attracted to sculpture as a discipline. The friendly encouragement he received as of 1909 from Brancusi no doubt intensified his interest and reinforced his attempts to achieve a sustained simplicity of line and form. In 1910, he befriended the Russian artists Alexander Archipenko and Jacques Lipchitz, both of whom recorded Modigliani’s distaste for modelling in clay (which he referred to as ‘mud’), on the grounds that it degraded the art of sculpture. Like Brancusi, Modigliani believed in working directly, carving from wood in the case of two extant pieces, and from (sand)stone in others, with the exception of a few bronzes which were, presumably, modelled in clay before being cast into bronze. His sculpture was influenced by archaic and non-western cultures - early Graeco-Roman, African and Khmer - as well as heads carved on columns adorning the façades of Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals (Modigliani rarely sculpted a rear view of his figures). Up to approximately 1912, his sculptures take the form of tall cylinders, usually with elongated heads and shallow relief indentations or projections to indicate the hairline, facial features and neck. He departed from this style only infrequently, most notably in a small number of pieces believed to have been sculpted in 1913, which are characterised by a compressed, cubistic format and shallower and less distinct features. Modigliani eventually abandoned sculpture, presumably because of his general health and circumstances, and possibly due to the fact that his sculptures sold for even less than his paintings. During the years that he devoted to sculpture, Modigliani is recorded as producing only thirty canvases, although after 1913 his sculpture became reflected in his painting. Following his Montmartre days, Modigliani’s work developed in both quantitative and qualitative terms, presumably helped by the relative stability of his relationship with Jeanne Hébuterne. The first paintings after his short-lived sculptural phase saw him revert briefly to Neo-Impressionist pointillism, followed by a episode marked by Cubism, which was mainly evident in portraits of friends and fellow artists living and working in Montparnasse: Henri Laurens; Juan Gris (1915); Jacques Lipchitz and his Wife; Chaim Soutine; Léopold Sauvage; Paul Guillaume; Max Jacob; Béatrice Hastings con Capello (all 1916); Mlle Modigliani (1917); Léon Bakst; Léopold Zborowski; Concierge’s Son; Adolescent (1918); Mademoiselle Lunia Czechowska; Madame Zborowska; Portrait of the Artist’s Wife (1919). A large number of other portraits exist among his drawings, most of which were executed impromptu in the street or cafés. These quickly drawn portraits often exhibit an urgency and surprising lucidity. Examples include Portrait of the Gypsy Painter Fabiano de Castro; André Salmon (1918); Portrait of the Artist’s Wife (1919); and Lada, Author; Mario, Composer (1920). Whatever his shortcomings, Amedeo Modigliani ranks as one of the 20th-century’s greatest painters of the female form. The bulk of his painted nudes were produced in 1915-1916 (prior to that date they were predominantly drawings), and are taken from every walk of life, such as a regular at a Montparnasse café, or a waitress at the soup kitchen where he ate his meagre meals. In each instance, he invested his models with an almost aristocratic hauteur. This is exemplified in a number of paintings (usually based on numerous prior drawings): Flower Girl; Blonde Lady; Sleeping Nude (1917); Blonde Nude; Young Woman; Maria (1918); Pink Nude; Reclining Nude; Nude on a Divan; Woman with a Fan (1919); and Young Woman in a Chemise; Reclining Nude (1920). Modigliani painted his subjects in elongated, elliptic ovals: the swell of a breast, the pronounced curve of the pelvis, the fullness of the thigh, the symmetrically oval face and the graceful arabesque of the body. Facial features are reduced to a bare minimum, with the eyes typically empty, like those of a statue. He employed colour as a constructive material in much the same way as stone in sculpture, juxtaposing muted pinks, ochres and pale browns against discreet background tones supplied by décor and garments. The overall effect is to yield a flat image devoid of chiaroscuro but which captures the essence of a subject. It has often been remarked that his women, with their elongated heads and long, graceful necks, generally tilted to one side, possess a melancholy beauty akin to that of the Siena Madonnas (reproductions of which Modigliani kept pinned on his studio wall), which accounts for Modigliani’s soubriquet as the ‘painter of sorrows’. From 1917, the majority of his nudes, characterised by a more pronounced elongation of the female body and lighter palette, were modelled by Jeanne Hébuterne and Luna Czechowska. Very few artists have been the subject of so many monographs and biographies as Modigliani; the selection appended to this entry indicates only some of the more important of these. Too much, perhaps, has been made of his life as an artiste maudit, of his ‘accursed’ yet colourful life rather than the quality of his work. Some critics have detected in him an artist of great and persistent intellectual curiosity; others emphasise that he was a ‘gentleman to the end’ and stress his physical frailty, ignoring the fact that this was an integral component of his creativity. More seriously, his posthumous fame amongst the public at large acts both for and against him, as if his subsequent popularity has become a yardstick of his artistic ability. The mannerism of his style ensures that a ‘Modigliani’ is instantly recognisable, but his success in adapting Cubism and African art to a language and palette that are entirely his own places him squarely at the heart of the modern movement. Amedeo Modigliani’s work has featured in numerous group exhibitions, including: Paris in 1908, when he showed his Jewess and three other canvases; the Salon des Indépendants in 1910; and the Salon d’Automne in 1912, where he exhibited examples of his sculpture. His posthumous inclusion in the 1922 Venice Biennale was regarded in Italy as a complete fiasco, prompting the critic Giovanni Scheiwiller to paraphrase Charles Baudelaire’s remark to the effect that, ‘we know that precious few will understand us, but that shall be sufficient’. In 1917-1918, the Berthe Weill Gallery organised a one-man show at the instigation of Zborowski but, on the order of the then chief of police, some of Modigliani’s sensual nudes were withdrawn on account of alleged indecency. On 20 December 1918, the Paul Guillaume Gallery exhibited several paintings by Modigliani alongside others by Matisse, Picasso and Derain. All other exhibitions of Modigliani’s work have been held since his death. They include those at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery in Paris (1922); Galerie Bing (Paris, 1925 and 1927); Marcel Benhelm Gallery (Paris, 1931); Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels, 1933); Kunsthalle Basel (1934); American-British Art Center (New York, 1944); Galerie de France (Paris, 1945 and 1949); Gimpels Fils Gallery (London, 1947); Cleveland Museum of Art (1951); Museum of Modern Art (New York, 1951); Cantini Museum (Marseilles, 1958); Palazzo Reale (Milan, 1958); Galerie Charpentier (Paris, 1958); Chicago Arts Club (1959); Cincinnati Art Museum (1959); Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (Rome, 1959); Boston Museum of Fine Arts (1961); Perls Galleries (New York, 1963 and 1966); Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art (1968); Musée Jacquemart-André (Paris, 1970); Musée St-Georges (Liège, 1980); Tokyo Arts Centre (1980); Musée de l’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1970; a comprehensive exhibition of Modigliani’s sculptures...

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