Margaret Kennedy

Details

FRANK DOBSON, R.A. (1886-1963)
Margaret Kennedy
signed and numbered 'Dobson/ 2⁄3' (on the reverse)
bronze with a black patina on a hardwood base
13 1⁄2 in. (34.3 cm.) high, excluding base
Conceived in 1926.

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Phillips, London, 13 June 1989, lot 116, as 'Head of a Woman', where purchased for the present collection.

Literature

N. Jason and L. Thompson-Pharoh, The Sculpture of Frank Dobson, Much Hadham, 1994, p. 132, no. 57.

Exhibited

London, Leicester Galleries, Paintings and Sculpture by Bernard Adeney, Keith Baynes, Vanessa Bell, Frank Dobson, Roger Fry, Duncan Grant and F.J. Porter, May - June 1926, no. 74, another cast exhibited.
London, Courtauld Institute, Selected Sculptures of Frank Dobson 1925-54, 1995, no. 34, catalogue not traced.

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.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Amelia Walker Director, Specialist Head of Private & Iconic Collections

awalker@christies.com +44 20 7389 2085

Lot Essay

The present work depicts British novelist Margaret Kennedy (1896-1967). Born in London, Kennedy attended Cheltenham Ladies College and began writing during her history degree at Somerville College, Oxford University in 1915 alongside a number of literary contemporaries including Vera Brittain. Her second novel The Constant Nymph, published in 1924 became her most successful work, having been reprinted more than 25 times and translated into several languages. In September 1926, the novel was adapted into a play featuring Noël Coward and Edna Best, premiering at the New Theatre in London’s West End and later translated into three film adaptations.

Kennedy wrote fifteen further prize-winning novels during her career, winning the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1953, for her novel Troy Chimneys.

More from The Collection of Sir Nicholas Goodison - British Art: Innovation and Craftsmanship

View All