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Lot Essay
Across the Modern British and Irish Art Evening and Day sales, Christie’s are delighted to be offering a group of works by Edward Wadsworth, which are being sold directly from the artist’s family. This group demonstrates Wadsworth’s skill and diversity, and is led by his striking early Self Portrait in a Turban of 1911 (please see lot 14 in the Evening sale), painted the year he won First prize for Figure Painting at the Slade School of Art. In the Day sale, works from all decades of his career are represented: from the earliest work of 1912, a rare oil painting depicting Gran Canaria where he and his wife Fanny spent their honeymoon; to a 1944 tempera painting Straight from the Tap I, which came about as part of a war-time commission from the ICI in which a stylised female figure occupies her domestic environment. These works have remained in the artist’s family since they were painted, and not only do they confirm Wadsworth’s position within the avant-garde of the time, but they also document the more private life of the artist and his family.
For works from this collection please see lot 14 in the Modern British and Irish Art Evening sale on 18 October, and lots 103-108 in the Modern British and Irish Art Day sale on 19 October.
From April 1919 through to June and July, Wadsworth spent periods of time in the Black Country. He had observed this industrial landscape when travelling by train between London and Liverpool, the latter where he was stationed, supervising the painting of the dazzle ships at Liverpool Docks. In August, he wrote to the American art collector John Quinn, 'I am now working hard on some drawings of rather a different type to those I have just received from you [that is, Vorticist-inspired compositions sent to Quinn by Ezra Pound during the First World War]. These are, more or less, realistic drawings of landscape' (letter dated 27 August 1919, Quinn Papers, NYPL, sited in J. Black, Edward Wadsworth, Form, Feeling and Calculation: The Complete Paintings and Drawings, London, 2005, p. 37).
This group of drawings, including Rubel Bronze and Metal Co. Ltd, were exhibited in January 1920 at the Leicester Galleries to great critical acclaim. The images captured this industrial landscape and its granite quarries and slag heaps, demonstrating the impact of modern technology on the landscape.
For works from this collection please see lot 14 in the Modern British and Irish Art Evening sale on 18 October, and lots 103-108 in the Modern British and Irish Art Day sale on 19 October.
From April 1919 through to June and July, Wadsworth spent periods of time in the Black Country. He had observed this industrial landscape when travelling by train between London and Liverpool, the latter where he was stationed, supervising the painting of the dazzle ships at Liverpool Docks. In August, he wrote to the American art collector John Quinn, 'I am now working hard on some drawings of rather a different type to those I have just received from you [that is, Vorticist-inspired compositions sent to Quinn by Ezra Pound during the First World War]. These are, more or less, realistic drawings of landscape' (letter dated 27 August 1919, Quinn Papers, NYPL, sited in J. Black, Edward Wadsworth, Form, Feeling and Calculation: The Complete Paintings and Drawings, London, 2005, p. 37).
This group of drawings, including Rubel Bronze and Metal Co. Ltd, were exhibited in January 1920 at the Leicester Galleries to great critical acclaim. The images captured this industrial landscape and its granite quarries and slag heaps, demonstrating the impact of modern technology on the landscape.