Lot 187
187
Sir Max Beerbohm (1872-1956)
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Sir Max Beerbohm (1872-1956)

The King! God Bless Him!

Details
Sir Max Beerbohm (1872-1956)
The King! God Bless Him!
inscribed 'THE KING!/GOD BLESS/HIM!' (upper left) and signed, annotated and dated 'Done by "Max"/in about 1911/and now belonging to/Ludovic and Moira Kennedy/1952' (lower left)
pen, black ink, watercolour and crayon
12¼ x 7½ in. (31.1 x 19 cm.)
Literature
R. Hart-Davis, A Catalogue of the Caricatures of Max Beerbohm, London, 1972, no. 500, p. 59.
Exhibited
London, Leicester Galleries, Max Beerbohm, May 1952.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis
Sale room notice
Sir Ludovic and Lady Kennedy met Max Beerbohm in 1952 when they visited him to discuss producing a ballet from Beerbohm's work, The Happy Hypocrite Sir Ludovic Kennedy recalls the meeting in his autobiography, On my way to the Club, London, 1989, pp. 215, 217, 218.

Lot Essay

Both as Prince of Wales and as King, Edward VII was Max's favourite subject. The Hart-Davis catalogue lists 72 caricatures, a number only surpassed by self-caricatures. His caricaturing of the Prince of Wales started while still a schoolboy and as King, Edward fascinated Max more than ever, often drawing attention, as in the current work, to his large, pointed nose. A reviewer of Max's 1952 retrospective exhibition at the Leicester Galleries said, 'Historians may write as they will, but Edward VII will always appear as he does in Beerbohm's drawings'. (see N. John Hall, Max Beerbohm Caricatures, Yale, 1997, pp. 171-174).

The present work was annotated in 1952 when the present owners visited the artist at his villa in Rapallo.

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