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Lot 215
Robert Fry Untitled, 2020 Mixed media and collage on paper Signed verso 10 x 15cm (3¾ x 5¾ in.) Robert Fry's works, whether on canvas or paper, typically revolve around the act of stripping the human body down to its barest - often most psychologically charged - elements. He creates flattened forms and silhouettes which, when coupled with his trademark dark and brooding colour palette of purple, magenta, maroon, and oxblood, results in figures that ebb and flow from their surroundings. The works are often typified by subject matter that is culled from Classical references and motifs (including Renaissance archways and curving porticoes), skeletal and muscular diagrams (from the Vesalius Man to Arnold Schwarzenegger), or his own personal memory bank (imagined images of himself and his father, vistas from his West London home and studio), and - most recently - found magazine and pornographic material which has made its way, in collage-form, into the surface of the paintings, along with obsessively repeated text that creates a sort of onomatopoeia-like border around the scene itself. Fry is - at a base level - a figurative painter, but the work is so obscurely and poetically charged that to categorize in any one manner seems shortsighted: they are more like psychological landscapes, where figures are so obscured hat we, as viewers, are forced to examine them in abstract means. The works perhaps recall Francis Bacon, where grotesque, writhing male figures seem trapped within an architectural space. His desire to withhold any easy answer from the viewer creates an unnerving tension between reality and fantasy, depiction and imagination. Fry believes that by always presenting the figure nude, he is permitted to explore the human condition in the most accessible manner, presenting the human body as a conduit of expression and meaning, devoid of any preconceptions that may otherwise arise through the depiction of their face, clothing, or background. Figures are often shown in groups, with one or more individuals representing either an 'other' or an alternative state of mind or being, and often laid one atop the other, stripped of identity and presented for the viewer in a totally metaphorical, painterly context. Fantastical, haunting, and poetic, Fry's work is quite unlike any other contemporary working painter.
Lot 197
Josef Lorenzl (Austrian, 1892-1950)Dancing Female NudeArt Deco gilt-bronze figure with both arms behind and one leg kicked up in front; raised on green onyx base, inscribed 'LORENZL' to base, 20cm wide, 9cm deep, 30cm high (7 1/2in wide, 3 1/2in deep, 11 1/2in high) For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Lot 335
Théodore Géricault (Rouen 1791-1824 Paris)Portrait of a man, probably the engraver Francois Godefroy (d. 1819), on his deathbed oil on canvas19.1 x 24.5cm (7 1/2 x 9 5/8in).Footnotes:Provenance(Possibly) Charles-Emile Callande de Champmartin (1797-1883)(Possibly) His sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 28-29 January 1884, lot 273 (as Géricault, Portrait de Godefroy, graveur, this sale was cancelled)(Possibly) His sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, 28 January 1888, lot 112 (as 'Attributed to Géricault, Godefroy, graveur, sur son lit de mort)Private Collection, ParisLiteratureB. Chenique, Géricault, au coeur de la creation romantique; etudes pour la Radeau de la Meduse, exh. cat., Clermont-Ferrand, 2012, p.230, no. 37, ill.ExhibitedClermont-Ferrand, Musee d'Art Roger-Quillot, Géricault, au coeur de la creation romantique. Etudes pour le Radeau de la Meduse, 2 June - 3 September 2012, cat. no. 37This intimate oil sketch, painted the same year as Géricault's masterpiece The Raft of the Medusa, represents an extremely important addition to this major artist's oeuvre. It is almost certainly the picture from the collection of Émile Champmartin, who was Géricault's friend and fellow apprentice in the studio of Pierre Guérin. Long known to scholars only through sale catalogues, its recent rediscovery adds considerably to our understanding of an artist working at the forefront of the emerging Romantic movement, during the turbulent early years of the Bourbon Restoration. Until this painting surfaced recently in a private collection in Paris, references to a portrait of 'Godefroy, graveur, sur son lit de mort' in the Champmartin sale catalogues were believed to describe a work acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1937. That work, likewise a small oil sketch of a man's head, bore an old label that seemingly confirmed its provenance: 'Géricault (Th)/69 – Tête d'homme sur son lit de mort, provident de la coll. Champmartin'. Evidently a cutting from an old sale catalogue, the label had yet to be traced in 1991. The art historian Lorenz Eitner defended the attribution to Géricault in his two major studies of the artist (1971 and 1983), albeit without attempting to identify the model. It was Philippe Grunchec (1978) who first doubted the attribution of the Chicago picture to Géricault on the grounds that the drapery, in particular, bore no resemblance to other works by the artist. When the Chicago picture was finally cleaned of old restorations in 1985, Grunchec's suspicions were confirmed: the cleaning revealed a bold signature in red, 'E. Champmartin'. By the time of the Géricault exhibition, held at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1991, the Chicago picture was known to be by Champmartin. Curator Sylvain Laveissière revisited the question of the model's identity at this point, postulating 'si l'on croit les catalogues des ventes Champmartin, le modele serait Godefroy, graveur'. Parmi les artistes de ce nom contemporains, le meilleur candidats est François Godefroy, né en 1743...et mort l'année meme du Radeau de la Meduse.' Laveissière's identification of the model as 'probably François Godefroy' is based on the mention of the aforementioned painting entitled 'Godefroy, graveur, sur son lit de mort' in the Champmartin sale catalogues. M. Laveissière further restates Grunchec's hypothesis that the painting in the Champmartin sale catalogues (1884 and 1888) was in fact the Chicago picture, now known to be a signed work by Champmartin. Born in Rouen in 1743, Godefroy was a successful and prolific engraver with a thriving studio in Paris. He can be linked to Géricault through the Coiny family of engravers, father and son; the younger Coiny, Joseph, was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1816, the same year in which Géricault competed unsuccessfully. Even more tellingly, Godefroy died in Paris on 28 April 1819, aged 76 – just four months before the Salon at which Géricault unveiled the Raft of the Medusa, in preparation for which he made a number of studies in oil of cadavers. Unusual though it might seem to us today, for 19th century artists the practice of painting corpses followed a longstanding academic tradition. In-depth studies of human anatomy, based on dissections and drawing from nude models and ancient sculpture, were fundamental for Renaissance masters, such as Leonardo and Michelangelo. It was in this classical Academic tradition that Géricault received his earliest training, in the studio of Pierre-Narcisse Guérin. However, the talented but disobedient Géricault did not last long in this environment of strict instruction. Abandoning his apprenticeship, Géricault began his own programme of independent study, setting up his easel in the Louvre, recently renamed the Musée Napoleon and filled with the artistic spoils of conquest from Italy and Flanders. He bypassed the classicists such as Raphael and turned instead to works by Rubens, Titian, Velázquez and Rembrandt. These were the masters of colorito painting, in which the tones and physicality of the paint medium reign supreme over elegant contours. Travel to Italy in 1816-17 reinforced Géricault's reliance on colorito, which lends itself readily to the turbulence and emotion that characterise the Romantic style. As one of the early proponents of Romanticism, Géricault laid the groundwork for the subsequent generation of French masters, including Delacroix and Courbet. It was in Italy that Géricault began his practice of painting contemporary events in the elevated manner of history painting. Upon his return to France, Géricault chose as his subject for the 1819 Salon The Raft of the Medusa, a monumental representation of man's struggle against nature (fig. 1). In order more accurately to depict the shipwrecked passengers, Géricault made a number of studies at local hospitals and of victims of the guillotine. A friend of the artist, Théodore Lebrun, recalls posing for Géricault when he fell sick with jaundice; Géricault, upon spotting Lebrun's sickly pallor, exclaimed 'Ah! Mon ami, comme vous êtes beau!' It is to this important moment in Géricault's career that the oil sketch of Godefroy can be dated. Demonstrating all the hallmarks of Géricault's mature style, the forms are defined by heavy impasto brushwork, with alternating areas of illumination and deep shadow suggesting a candlelit interior. The small scale of the work lends it an air of intimacy: although it can be linked, artistically, to such grim studies as the Severed head of a man (private collection, Paris) and Le Guillotiné (Musée Royale d'Art Moderne, Brussels), it is a dignified rather than a gruesome representation of death and in this regard recalls Renaissance postmortem portraiture, and even religious iconography. There is an ambiguity to the old man's half-closed eyes and sunken cheeks that suggests the space between living and dead, sleeping and dying. It is altogether a subtler, more sensitive painting than that by Champmartin in Chicago and is a testament to Géricault's enduring appeal among today's contemporary artists, including Lucien Freud. This work has historically been excluded from Géricault scholarship simply because it has, until now, been unknown to experts. Charles Clément, the first chronicler of Géricault's work, was unable to interview the elderly M. Champmartin, which explains why works in his collection receive no mention in his monograph. This omission has been compounded in all subsequent scholarship. However M. Bruno Chenique, who has had the opportunity to study this work first-hand and has confirmed its attribution in a letter, dated 8 September 2013, will include it in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné, currently in preparation.... For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
Lot 71
An Art Deco Goebel novelty flask modelled as a young girl in bright orange poke bonnet holding a colourful bouquet of flowers, the reverse embossed with a Jiminy Cricket style figure, the cork stopper as the back of her bonnet, 14cm, impressed mark, c.1930; a continental porcelain full pincushion doll, semi-nude dancing girl in lace and ribbon skirt, 24cm, unmarked; a German porcelain model of a bathing beauty reclining on a white sheet, green bow in her bobbed hair, orange shoes, 14cm wide, impressed crown mark and number 7923 (3)
Lot 131
A bronzed terracotta model of a seated youth, 20th century, the nude male subject portrayed with his head and arms resting on his raised left knee, on a rectangular section travertine marble plinth, 33cm high, the base 43 x 30cmCondition Report: The model bears the usual minor marks, knocks and scuffs overall consistent with age, as well as some dust and dirt in the recesses.The modelling of the work is loose overall, and as such the surface is relatively inconsistent, due to the design. There is a handful of tiny indentations which may be due to modelling/casting. The bronzed finish is a little scuffed to the extremities, and there are two or three shallow and small chips to the arms exposing the terracotta underneath.No identifying marks/signatures have been detected. Condition Report Disclaimer
Lot 80
A German porcelain rectangular plaque, late 19th century, Berlin or Dresden, painted en grisaille with a nude maiden beside a stream, dressing her hair, unsigned, unmarked except stamped 808, 25cm x 17cmCondition Report: Small chip on top edge, slight rubbing to other edges. Some light surface scratches consistent with age. Condition Report Disclaimer
Lot 335
PAINTINGS AND DRY POINT ETCHING, to include 'Clay-Next-The-Sea, Norfolk' by James Priddey, signed and titled to lower margin, watercolours of Houses of Parliament, landscapes and riverscape, indistinct signature with paintings by Grace Scurlock, various subjects, nude female study initialled R.J and a map of the World, published by James Galt, 1966 (all framed)
Lot 1065
(See below for english version)Weiblicher Akt im Spiegel. 1979Offsetcrumplage auf Karton montiert. 27,1 × 25,9 cm ( 10 ⅝ × 10 ¼ in.). Unten rechts mit Kugelschreiber in Schwarz signiert und datiert: J Kolar 79.Entstanden in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Fotografen Werner Hannappel, Berlin. [3412]Zustandsbericht: Schöner harmonischer Gesamteindruck. Die Blattkanten ohne Einrisse oder Fehlstellen. Rückseitig in den Ecken jeweils mit Flüssigkleber auf den Unterlagekarton montiertWir berechnen auf den Hammerpreis 25% Aufgeld und auf Hammerpreis und Aufgeld die zum Auktionszeitpunkt geltende Umsatzsteuer.Female nude in the Mirror. 1979Offset crumplage. 27,1 × 25,9 cm ( 10 ⅝ × 10 ¼ in.). Signed and dated in black ballpoint pen on the lower right: J Kolar 79.Produced in collaboration with the photographer Werner Hannappel, Berlin. [3412]Condition report: Fine harmonious overall appearance. The sheet edges without tears or losses. Mounted on the reverse at each corners with liquid glue on cardboardWe charge 25% premium on the Hammerprice and VAT applies to hammerprice and premium.
Lot 55
James Lawrence Isherwood F.R.S.A., F.I.A.L. (1917-1989), "Blue Nude", signed and dated '68, titled on verso, oil on board, 49.5 x 39.5cm, 19.5 x 15.5in.Artists’ Resale Right (“droit de suite”) may apply to this lot.Condition report: The painting is in very good, original condition with no obvious faults to report. The painting is framed but not glazed.
Lot 1
Duncan Grant (British, 1885-1978)Reclining Nude with Fan thrice signed indistinctly 'Duncan Grant' (on panel, verso)oil and charcoal on paper laid on panel57.2 x 77 cm. (22 1/2 x 30 1/4 in.)Footnotes:ProvenanceClarissa Roche, from whom acquired by the present ownerPrivate Collection, U.K.We are grateful to Richard Shone for his 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
Lot 23
Henry Moore O.M., C.H. (British, 1898-1986)Reclining Figure: Pointed Legs signed and numbered 'Moore 7/9' (on the bronze base)bronze with a brown patina22.9 cm. (9 in.) long (including the bronze base)Conceived in 1979Footnotes:ProvenanceWith Adler Fielding Gallery, Johannesburg, from whom acquired byPrivate Collection, U.S.A.LiteratureAlan Bowness, Henry Moore: Volume 5, Sculpture and Drawings, Sculpture 1974-80, Lund Humphries, London, 1983, p.45, cat.no.LH777 (ill.b&w., another cast)'From the very beginning the reclining figure has been my main theme', Moore has declared. 'The first one I made was around 1924, and probably more than half of my sculptures since then have been reclining figures'' (H. Moore, quoted in A. Wilkinson (ed.), Henry Moore, Writings and Conversations, Aldershot, 2002, p.212).The recumbent female form was a theme Henry Moore returned to throughout his nearly sixty-year career. 'The human figure is the basis of all my sculpture,' Moore professed, 'and that for me means the female nude.' Most of Moore's female figures are positioned seated or reclining, a configuration that initially stemmed from Moore's use of stone as his preferred medium and the structural weakness of the material in a standing figure's ankles. 'The reclining figure gives the most freedom, compositionally and spatially. The seated figure must have something to sit on. You can't free it from its pedestal. A reclining figure can recline on any surface. It is free and stable at the same time. It fits in with my belief that sculpture should be permanent, should last for an eternity' (D. Mitchinson, (ed.), Henry Moore Sculpture, with Comments by the Artist, London, 1981, p.86).The beautifully modulating form for the present work exemplifies Moore's mastery of the bronze medium. Propped on her forearms with her attention directed to her left and legs facing a contra-direction, Reclining Figure: Pointed Legs is animatedly alert and captures an instant of the figure's movement. The motion evoked by the form's curvilinear shape endows the figure with a plasticity that seemingly defies the bronze medium. Although reclining, this brilliantly dynamic sculpture presents dramatic profiles when seen from various viewpoints. The points of the figure's head, breasts, and attenuated arms and legs are counterbalanced by the soft curves of the woman's arching back, stomach, and propped legs.The recumbent woman is an artistic trope harkening to Ingres, Delacroix, Manet, among others, and references the Orientalist fantasy of the odalisque, a nude or partially clad harem girl. However, while most of Moore's reclining women are nude, Moore scholar David Sylvester argues: 'though they lie with knees apart or thighs apart, their overall pose doesn't betoken the availability commonly implied in reclining female nudes' (D. Sylvester, Henry Moore, Tate Gallery, London, 1968, p.5). Moore's women are in contradiction to the voyeuristic gaze of his predecessors. 'I am not conscious of erotic elements in [my work], and I have never set out to create an erotic work of art,' Moore stated. 'I have no objection to people interpreting my forms and sculptures erotically...but I do not have any desire to rationalize the eroticism in my work, to think out consciously what Freudian or Jungian symbols may lie behind what I create' (quoted in A. Wilkinson, ed., Henry Moore: Writings and Conversations, Berkeley, 2002, p.115). 'These reclining women are not the reclining women of a Maillol or a Matisse,' Will Grohmann wrote. 'They are women in repose but also something more profound...the woman as the concept of fruitfulness, the Mother Earth. Moore, who once pointed to the maternal element in the 'Reclining Figures', may well see in them an element of eternity, the 'Great Female', who is both birth-giving nature and the wellspring of the unconscious... To Henry Moore, the 'Reclining Figures' are no mere external objects; he identifies himself with them, as well as the earth and the whole realm of motherhood' (W. Grohmann, The Art of Henry Moore, London, 1960, p.43).'I want to be quite free of having to find a 'reason' for doing the Reclining Figures,' Moore declared, 'and freer still of having to find a 'meaning' for them. The vital thing for an artist is to have a subject that allows him to try out all kinds of formal ideas—things that he doesn't yet know about for certain but wants to experiment with, as Cézanne did in his 'Bather' series. In my case the reclining figure provides chances of that sort. The subject matter is given. It's settled for you, and you know it and like it, so that within the subject that you've done a dozen times before, you are free to invent a completely new form-idea' (quoted in J. Russell, Henry Moore, London, 1968, p.48).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
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