Sir William Nicholson (British, 1872-1949)Lilies of the Valley signed 'Nicholson' (lower left)oil on panel39.4 x 27 cm. (15 1/2 x 10 5/8 in.)Painted in 1927Footnotes:ProvenanceWith Redfern Gallery, London, 1943Lady CochranWith Browse & Darby, London, 1973With James KirkmanReginald Field GlazebrookHis sale; Sotheby's, Brynbella, 2 June 1994, lot 354, where purchased byBrowse & Darby, on behalf ofLady DugdaleExhibitedLondon, Beaux Arts Gallery, Pictures and Drawings by William Nicholson, 30 June-30 July 1927, cat.no.41London, Redfern Gallery, Summer Exhibition, 5 August-22 September 1943, cat.no.21Eastbourne, Towner Art Gallery, William Nicholson: Painter: Landscape and Still-life, 4 November-31 December 1995, cat.no.22; this exhibition travelled to Cambridge, Kettle's Yard, 6 January-25 January 1996, Nottingham, Castle Museum, 2 March-28 April 1996, London, Browse & Darby, 2 May-1 June 1996London, The Royal Academy of Arts, William Nicholson: British Painter and Printmaker, 30 October-23 January 2005, cat.no.39LiteratureLillian Browse, William Nicholson, Rupert Hart Davis, London, 1956, cat.no.376Andrew Nicholson (ed.), William Nicholson, Painter, The William Nicholson Trust, London, 1996, p.204 (col.ill)Sanford Schwartz, William Nicholson, Yale University Press, London, 2004, p.208 (ill.b&w)Sanford Schwartz (ed.), The Art of William Nicholson, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2004, p.92 (col.ill.)Patricia Reed, William Nicholson, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings, Modern Art Press, London, 2011, p.463, cat.no.583 (col.ill.)'Lilies of the Valley, where the white flowers are in a glass before a yellow wall in a bright light, has a radiant sweetness that hardly seems matched by Nicholson's earlier work. There is nothing especially sweet, though, about the masterful laying of tones here, from the palest of shadows to the white of the flowers, the whole done, it appears, with breakneck speed.' (Sanford Schwartz, William Nicholson, Yale University Press, London, 2004, p.208)We are grateful to Patricia Reed for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
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William Roberts R.A. (British, 1895-1980)In the Park signed 'Roberts' (upper right)oil on canvas30.5 x 35.6 cm. (12 x 14 in.)Painted circa 1925Footnotes:Provenance With The Warren Gallery, LondonPrivate CollectionSale; Christie's, London, 1 March 1974, lot 126Rodney Capstick-Dale, Esq. With Michael Parkin Fine Art, London, where acquired byLady DugdaleExhibitedLondon Artists' AssociationLondon, Michael Parkin Fine Art, William Roberts: An Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, 17 November–4 December 1976, cat.no.1William Roberts met his wife to be Sarah Kramer in 1915 when he was twenty and she fifteen. The introduction was made by Sarah's brother (Jacob Kramer who had studied with Roberts at the Slade). Roberts was smitten instantly, but as with many young lovers of their generation the war intervened. Roberts returned from Ypres in 1918, the following summer a son was born to the couple, and they were married in 1922. The fledgling family unit entered the twenties living a somewhat impoverished existence, frequently moving between rented rooms, but revelling in the joyful life of bohemian London. As the decade matured so did Roberts's career meeting with success (both critically and commercially), providing much needed stability. As Andrew Gibbon Williams notes, 'As the 1920s drew to a close, he had every reason to feel optimistic about the chances of becoming a successful modern artist. He had acquired an impressive portfolio of collectors. The Contemporary Art Society was acquiring his works. One of his pictures was hanging in the Tate Gallery. Above all, as several tender portraits testify, he was still deeply in love. Whatever life might throw at him, the bedrock of his existence was firmly in place.' (Andrew Gibbon Williams, William Roberts, An English Cubist, Lund Humphries, Aldershot, 2004, p.72).In the pre-war years, at a prodigious age, Roberts was key in the development of the Vorticist movement, introducing the principles of Cubism to British art. Throughout the war, his application of these principles to the extraordinary scenes he witnessed resulted in some of the most affecting images of the conflict. Upon his return to London and throughout the twenties he continued to paint in a developed cubist aesthetic, and his subjects became increasingly documentarian in choosing. The bohemia he and Sarah enjoyed so much formed one strand; music halls and dance clubs at night provided memorable source material, and by day the urban arcadia of London's parks featured in works such as Bank Holiday in the Park (1923) and Figures in the Park (c.1924). In these the many richly described dynamics at play between the numerous protagonists are highly observational, and Roberts clearly finds interest in the hurling together of city dwellers who may have not met before, nor ever cross again. Yet a few works from this period draw from the more personal subject of family and appear to mirror that of the artist's own developing experience. The strife of family life on the breadline is explored in the claustrophobic squalor of The Poor Family (1921-22), a painting which contrasts deeply with the exuberant Happy Family of 1924 (Russell Cotes Museum, Bournemouth). The execution of these two works straddles 1923, the year in which Roberts was able to stage his first solo (and commercially successful) exhibition. Of the latter family park scene Gibbon Williams states; 'Everything about the picture is imbued with optimism: the central motif of the mother lifting her baby, the ball game behind her, the dozing father at the foot of the composition, even the pigeons' (Op. cit. p.69).The present picture could rather enigmatically sit in either camp. Its figures could be unknown to each other, only drawn together through chance as they seek a moments respite from the city. In the main they are introspective; one is lost in a book, another's attention drawn away from the scene towards a dog. One distant shaded figure escapes the sun that blushes exposed limbs elsewhere, observing another whose dozing head is precariously supported by a hand, threatening to fall to slumber. However, the cyclical arrangement in the fore could be read as a family group. Indeed, parallels can be drawn between the casts of The Happy Family and this scene; an observant mother, a playful child and a blissfully withdrawn father could each be identified in both. If so the narrative of the family unit from the turmoil of The Poor Family to the raucous commotion of The Happy Family is resolved by the quiet calm of In the Park.We are grateful to David Cleall and Bob Davenport for their assistance in cataloguing this lot.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
Italian school; 17th century."Judith beheading Holofernes."Oil on canvas. Old relined.It presents faults and restorations.Measurements: 156 x 144 cm.Both for the dynamic composition of the scene, in which all the figures are in active movement, as well as for the anatomical conception of the figures, and the composition in a cross with which the work has been conceived, the piece is very reminiscent of works by the artist Peter Paul Rubens. In fact, there are several engravings of the XVII century, where Rubens' models are followed, in which this same composition is appreciated, or for example the National Museum of Warsaw, conserves a piece of very identical characteristics to the one presented, which has been attributed to the school of Rubens, and dated between 1625-1650. The painting depicts the theme of Judith beheading Holofernes, just at the most dramatic moment of the action, when he has not yet expired, but is aware of his murder. The story about Judith and Holofernes is described in the biblical book of Judith, belonging to the Old Testament. The text tells the story of a Hebrew widow (Judith), in the middle of Israel's war against the Babylonian army, erroneously called Assyrian. With beautiful features, high education and enormous piety, religious zeal and patriotic passion, Judith discovers that the invading general, Holofernes, has fallen in love with her. Accompanied by her maid, the widow descends from her walled city besieged by the foreign army and, deceiving the soldier into believing she is in love with him, manages to enter his tent. Once there, instead of yielding to his gallant claims, she intoxicates him. When Holofernes falls asleep, Judith cuts off his head, sowing confusion in the Babylonian army and thus obtaining victory for Israel.Peter Paul Rubens was a painter of the Flemish school who, however, competed on equal terms with contemporary Italian artists, and enjoyed a very important international importance, since his influence was also key in other schools, as is the case of the passage to the full baroque in Spain. Although born in Westphalia, Rubens grew up in Antwerp, where his family originated. His mother, Maria Pypelincks, was a very important character in his life. She gave him a courtly and cultural education, which included the study of Latin and Greek, as well as the Bible. It was in fact his mother who put him in contact, while still very young, with the best painters of the time. Rubens had three teachers, the first being Tobias Verhaecht, a painter of precise and meticulous technique who had traveled to Italy, and who instilled in the young painter the first artistic rudiments. It is also possible that Rubens traveled to Italy influenced by this first master. The second was Adam van Noort, a Romanist painter also oriented towards the Italian influence, with a language still Mannerist, and who must also have influenced the young man to visit Italy. Finally, his third teacher was Otto van Veen, the most outstanding and the last of them. After his training, Rubens joined the Antwerp painters' guild in 1598.
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