Frederick Edward McWilliam, A.R.A. (1909-1992)

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more

Property from the Estate of James Melvin James Melvin (1912-2011) co-founded architectural firm Gollins Melvin Ward in 1947, along with Frank Gollins and Edmund Ward. Commissions for the practice included the central campus for the University of Sheffield and the twenty-eight storey Commercial Union Tower, the first building in the City to exceed the height of St Paul's Cathedral. During this period James Melvin sat on the Executive committee for the Contemporary Art Society, alongside eminent gallery directors, art critics and collectors, including Sir John Rothenstein, Alan Bowness, Eric Newton, Bryan Robertson and Sir Colin Anderson. This led to his involvement with ground-breaking exhibitions such as 'British Painting in the Sixties', held at the Tate Gallery and Whitechapel Art Gallery in 1963. James Melvin's own art collection demonstrates his discerning eye and appreciation of the sculpture and paintings being produced by Britain's young artists of the post-war period. These included works by Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Frank Auerbach and Paul Feiler, and furnished his modernist home displayed alongside sculptures by Alberto Giacometti and prints by Edvard Munch and Pablo Picasso.

Frederick Edward McWilliam, A.R.A. (1909-1992)

Sitting-up Figure

Details

Frederick Edward McWilliam, A.R.A. (1909-1992)
Sitting-up Figure
signed with initials and numbered 'McW/1/3' (on the reverse)
bronze with a grey brown patina
22 in. (56 cm.) long
Conceived in 1962.

Provenance

Purchased by the present owner at the 1963 exhibition.

Literature

R. Penrose, McWilliam, London, 1964, figs 112, 113 and illustrated on the front cover.
G. MacCann, North Review, vol. 1, 1965, pp. 72-73, no. 1, another cast illustrated.
B. Robertson, J. Russell, L. Snowdon, Private View, The Lively World of British Art, London, 1965, p. 97, another cast illustrated.
D. Ferran and V. Holman (eds), The Sculpture of F.E. McWilliam, Farnham, 2012, p. 136, no. 245, another cast illustrated.

Exhibited

London, Waddington Galleries, F.E. McWilliam, May - June 1963, no. 11, another cast exhibited.
Hillsborough, County Down Art Centre, 1971, another cast exhibited.
London, Tate Gallery, F.E. McWilliam Sculpture 1932-1989, May - July 1989, no. 41, another cast exhibited.

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.

Sale room notice

Please note the additional literature information for the present work:

B. Robertson, J. Russel, L. Snowdon, Private View, The Lively World of British Art, London, 1965, p. 97 (illus)

Brought to you by

Anne Haasjes

ahaasjes@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2681

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