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Lot 25
Leon Underwood (British, 1890-1975)The Sculptor black Irish marble38.7 cm. (15 1/4 in.) highCarved 1938-49UniqueFootnotes:ProvenanceSidney Rothman (probably acquired from the 1953 exhibition),thence by family descent to the present ownerPrivate Collection, U.K.ExhibitedLondon, Beaux Arts Gallery, Leon Underwood, 11 May-24 June 1953, cat.no.41Colchester, The Minories, Leon Underwood: A Retrospective Exhibition, 9 August-10 September 1969, cat.no.120LiteratureChristopher Neve, Leon Underwood, Thames and Hudson, London, 1974, p.176, pl.131 (ill.b&w)Ben Whitworth, The Sculpture of Leon Underwood, the Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, Aldershot, 2000, p.64, cat.no.118 (ill.b&w)The Sculptor appears to be the only carving Underwood made using black Irish marble, or Kilkenny marble as it is often referred to. An exquisite, fine-grained carboniferous limestone, its main source lies just south of Kilkenny, nicknamed 'the Marble City', in south-east Ireland.Of the present sculpture, which is appearing for sale through auction for the first ever time, Christopher Neve comments:'Ironically, with the 1939 Zwemmer exhibition indicating that his print-making and sculpture was not only increasing in momentum but beginning to regain a public lost when he went to America, war was declared. In no time he was frittering away a second spell in camouflage, this time attached to the Civil Defence department at Leamington Spa, with almost no opportunities for getting on with his work. The last major sculpture before the war is, significantly, The Sculptor, a massive and powerful figure in Irish black marble in which the head is drawn into the shoulders and all the forms block in on one another, the weight of the buttocks balanced by the heavy head of the mallet and the deliberately phallic and potentially productive chisel held against the body in front' (Christopher Neve, Leon Underwood, Thames and Hudson, London, 1974, p. 176)Whilst Underwood's earliest carvings in stone and wood appeared in the early 1920s, such as Torso in Tournai slate (collection: Tate Gallery, London), it was his sculptures of the mid-to-late 1930s which achieved greatest aesthetic resonance. African Madonna (St George's Anglican Cathedral, Cape Town, South Africa) for instance, in lignum vitae with silver-gilt inlay of 1934-35, is arguably his most impressive and successful. It was received in South Africa in 1935 to mixed reviews, to which Underwood explained his thought process, as Neve goes on to explain, 'In May, Underwood replied to his critics in an open letter to the Rand Mail, saying that he hoped in time the sculpture would be accepted as belonging to a new and different order of beauty by the descendants of those African artists 'whose simplicity of expression helped to rescue Western art from the slough of naturalism and vulgar sentiment' into which it has fallen in the nineteenth century.' (Op. cit. p.156). The Sculptor shares affinities with African Madonna, including its primitive, mask-like face and powerful over-sized forearm and hand. However, with the present lot the sculptor has jettisoned the rhythmic lines of lead or silver-gilt inlay which infiltrated his work during the middle part of the decade and concentrates all his artistic prowess on the medium to hand. Here, the inherent qualities of the fine-grained Kilkenny marble have been used to maximise impact. Part polished and unpolished, the areas left roughly sanded and are therefore less black, assist in accentuating the flowing lines of the glistening figure's body and face, thereby creating a dramatic sense of depth. It is the culmination of Underwood's twenty year-long investment with carving, as Ben Whitworth remarks:'Underwood's final carving was The Sculptor in black Irish marble, begun on the eve of the Second World War. This image of artistic power must not be read as a self-portrait, but it is ironic that, after making an image that epitomises the heroic view of direct carving, Underwood never again carved a block of stone or wood'. (Ben Whitworth, The Sculpture of Leon Underwood, The Henry Moore Foundation, Much Hadham, 2000, p.64)This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ARAR Goods subject to Artists Resale Right Additional Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Lot 56
Craigie Aitchison C.B.E., R.S.A., R.A. (British, 1926-2009)Nativity and Angels oil on canvas40.7 x 30.4 cm. (16 x 12 in.)Painted in 1960Footnotes:ProvenanceWith The New Art Centre, London, circa 1960, where acquired by Private Collection, U.K., thence by descentPrivate Collection, U.K.ExhibitedWiltshire, Rabley Drawing Centre, Craigie Aitchison R.A., A Life in Colour, Painting and Print 1952 - 2009, 5-15 March 2015This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ARAR Goods subject to Artists Resale Right Additional Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Lot 326
A LARGE BRONZE PLAQUETTE OF THE ECSTACY OF ST. CECILIA, AFTER RAPHAEL, ITALIAN, PROBABLY LATE 16TH CENTURY rectangular, the patron saint of music holding a portative organ and standing before a "viola da braccio", cymbals, tambourine, triangle and recorder on the ground, flanked by SS Augustine, John, Paul and the Magdalen, a choir of angels in the clouds above, labels to front of frame and reverse "J.E. Taylor Collection / 47" 24 x 17cm, 35.5 x 28cm including ebonised frame with giltwood mount Provenance: Collection of John Edward Taylor (1830-1905); sold Christie, Manson & Woods, London, "The Renowned Collection of Works of Art, Chiefly of the Mediaeval and Renaissance Times… formed by the Late John Edward Taylor, Esq.", 1 July 1912, lot 47 (to Ballard for 16"16|); Collection of Alfred Spero (1886-1973), London, from whom acquired by Bernard Kelly between 1967-1969. *See lot 309 for Introduction to the Bernard Kelly Collection and Selected Bibliography* J. E. Taylor was a prolific art collector, as well as the proprietor of the Manchester Guardian, the newspaper his father had founded. He started his collection in around 1849, having returned to England after a couple of years on the continent. Following the death of his widow, the collection was sold over several days at Christie"s for a total of £358,500. Alongside his passion for early Works of Art, Taylor loved English watercolours. |Among the collection were twenty-four works by J. M. W. Turner, and seven by Blake. He gave more than sixty watercolours to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and to the British Museum a complete set of Turner"s Liber Studiorum.| (Dictionary of National Biography, September 2004) Rather than following the widely disseminated print by Marcantonio Raimondi (c. 1470/82 - c. 1534), which differs in several respects, the present composition closely follows Raphael"s altarpiece, commissioned for a chapel dedicated to St. Cecilia in the Augustinian church of San Giovanni in Monte in Bologna, completed around 1516/17.
Lot 308
CHARLES CLIFFORD, WELSH, (1820-1863) "Cordova, Cathedral or Mosque, Interior, 1862" albumen print, framed 41 x 30cm inside mount The site of the famous mosque-cathedral of Cordoba is thought to have been constructed originally as a Christian church and, after the Umayyad invasion in the 8th century, shared by Christians and Muslims, in much the same way as the Great Mosque in Damascus. After a few decades, however, it became a wholly Muslim building and was fully rebuilt as a mosque. Thus it remained until 1236 when it was turned back into a Church, and the nave was added three centuries later. Charles Clifford lived and worked in Spain for much of his life. His subjects included landscapes and portraits of royalty. For another print of this scene in the Victoria and Albert Museum, see inv. no. 35581
Lot 378
Royal ephemera related to Edward VIII, comprising a signed portrait print by Van Dyke, in a silver mounted easel back frame, together with a further silver topped walking stick with Royal cipher, and Christmas card tags to Kenneth Crisp, signed by Edward, and a press cutting relating to Horace Crisp. Provenance: Horace Crisp was a valet to Edward VIII and items passed to his son and on to the current owner. Length of walking stick 85cm long
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