David Bomberg (1890-1957)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more
David Bomberg (1890-1957)

Quarrying - Jewish Pioneer Labour

Details
David Bomberg (1890-1957)
Quarrying - Jewish Pioneer Labour
charcoal and wash
20½ x 28 in. (52 x 71.2 cm.)
Executed in 1923-25.
Provenance
Lilian Bomberg, the artist's wife.
Ralph Shovel, London.
European Private Collection; Sotheby's, Tel Aviv, 26 October 2000, lot 30.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 16 November 2007, lot 59, where purchased by the present owner.
Literature
Exhibition catalogue, David Bomberg in Palestine: 1923-1927, Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, 1983, p. 45, no. 25, illustrated.
R. Cork, David Bomberg, London, 1987, pp. 166-167, no. 218, illustrated.
Exhibition catalogue, David Bomberg, London, Tate Gallery, 1988, p. 155, no. 89, illustrated.
Exhibited
London, Tate Gallery, David Bomberg, February - May 1988, no. 89.
Newcastle, Arts Council of Great Britain, Laing Art Gallery, David Bomberg 1890-1957: An exhibition of Paintings and Drawings, May - June 1958, no. 67: this exhibition travelled to Swansea, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, June - July 1958; Middlesbrough, Art Gallery, July - August 1958; Kettering, Art Gallery, August - September 1958; London, Arts Council Gallery, September - October 1958; and Bradford, Cartwright Memorial Hall, October - November 1958.
Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, David Bomberg in Palestine: 1923-1927, Autumn 1983, no. 25.
Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Lot Essay

To fulfil his commitment to the Zionist Organization to produce a number of works that they could use for propaganda purposes Bomberg executed a group of works that depict workers in the stone quarries. Stephanie Rachum writes, 'There were several such quarries in the Jerusalem area, producing stone for the budding building industry ... a number of drawings also exist. In Quarrying: Jewish Pioneer Labour [the present work] the energetic workers strain over an incision they have made in the hard rock. The triangular shapes of the overhead supports, bent bodies, and tents in the distance, set up a rhythmic repetition of form throughout. This drawing is the closest Bomberg came to a heroic depiction of pioneer labour' (see exhibition catalogue, David Bomberg in Palestine 1923-1927, op. cit., pp. 29-30).

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