Sworders
Lot 82
Henry Lamb RA (1883-1960)Portrait of Carl Eric Bechhofer Roberts (1894-1949)oil on canvas40.8 x 30.5cmProvenance: Carl Eric Bechhofer Roberts.Illustrated: Albert Rutherston, Henry Lamb, London: Ernest Benn Ltd, 1924, plate 18. This lot will be sold with a copy of the book.C E Bechhofer Roberts was a widely published English author and journalist. He was an early patron of Henry Lamb and owned several other works including 'A Bristol Committee', 1921 and 'Feeding Calves', 1921. His portrait is among a number of contemporary men of letters who sat for Lamb, including Lytton Strachey, Thomas Hardy and Evelyn Waugh.Bechhofer Roberts was born in London and studied Classics at Berlin University. At the end of the First World War, he worked with H G Wells at the Information Department. He travelled extensively in Russia, encountering Grigori Rasputin in St. Petersburg, who kissed him, and the mystic philosopher George Gurdjieff (1866-1949), whose work he introduced to an English audience. Bechhofer published 'Russia at the Crossroads' in 1916. He returned to Russia as part of the British Military Mission and was London Times correspondent, covering the Russian famine in 1921, the year he published his book, 'Through Starving Russia'. He went on to act as private secretary to Lord Birkenhead, 1924-1930.He was the first biographer of Winston Churchill, 1927. He also published lives of Madame Blavatsky, 1931, Stanley Baldwin, 1936, and Paul Verlaine, 1937. His book, 'This Side Idolatry', 1928, caused a scandal for its salacious revelations about the private life of Charles Dickens and his mistress. He also published under the pseudonyms, 'Ephesian' and 'Arthur Milton'. He edited The Old Bailey Trial series and wrote extensively on some of the more lurid criminal cases of the day, such as the trial of William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw). Bechhofer uncovered fraudulent mediums in 'The Truth about Spiritualism', 1932, and among his works of fiction is a hilarious gangster spoof, 'Don Chicago, or Crime Don't Pay', 1933. Bechhofer's books were recommended by George Orwell.The present lot is to be sold with a selection of essays, fiction and non-fiction books written by C E Bechhofer Roberts, to include his biographies of Stanley Baldwin and Lord Birkenhead, amongst others titled 'Don Chicago', 'Let'st Begin Again', 'The Mysterious Madame' and more.*Artist's Resale Right may apply to this lot.Condition report: Some dust and light dirt on canvas. Craquelure in places including jacket and cheek. Horizontal lines across weave of canvas visible at some angles. (see additional condition images). UV light shows some thin horizontal areas of retouching to forehead, nose and cheeks.
