Lot 174
174
Graham Sutherland, O.M. (1903-1980)
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Graham Sutherland, O.M. (1903-1980)

The Toad II

Details
Graham Sutherland, O.M. (1903-1980)
The Toad II
signed and dated 'Sutherland 58/9' (lower left), signed with initials, inscribed and dated again 'THE TOAD II'/G.S. 58-9' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
51 x 38½ in. (129.5 x 97 cm.), unframed
Provenance
with Marlborough Fine Art and Arthur Jeffress Gallery, London.
with Paul Rosenberg, New York.
with Pietro Campilli, Rome.
with New Art Centre, London.
Literature
D. Cooper, The Work of Graham Sutherland, London, 1961, pp. 49, 84, pl. XIV.
J. Hayes, The Art of Graham Sutherland, Oxford, 1980, p. 143, no. 113, illustrated.
Exhibited
New York, Paul Rosenberg, Recent Paintings by Graham Sutherland, November - December 1959, no. 3.
Basel, Kunsthalle, Graham Sutherland, February - March 1966, no. 102.
Munich, Haus der Kunst, Graham Sutherland, March - May 1967, no. 58: this exhibition travelled to the Hague, Gemeentemuseum, June - July; Berlin, Haus am Waldsee, August - September; and Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, October - November.
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

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André Zlattinger

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Lot Essay

Sutherland had picked up a toad on the road from Menton in the South of France in 1958. The present work is the first in a series of five large oils that Sutherland painted of this subject.

Douglas Cooper comments, 'Whereas in the past his animals were somewhat stylised and presented in the form of exhibits, today he depicts them more naturalistically in romantically suggested settings ... One toad seeks to escape from imprisonment in a glass jar, while another [the present work], emerging from some dank corner, turns the beam of his orange eye on the world and stretches out his fierce claw-like paw as though to strike down some prey' (op. cit., p. 49).

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