Self-Portrait in Profile

Details

David Bomberg (1890-1957)
Self-Portrait in Profile
oil on board
14¾ x 12½ in. (37.4 x 31.7 cm.)
Painted circa 1920.

Provenance

The artist's widow.
Roberto Shorto, by whom purchased at the 1981 exhibition.
with Fischer Fine Art, London, where purchased by the present owner, January 1992.

Literature

Exhibition catalogue, David Bomberg 1890-1957: Works from the collection of Lilian Bomberg, London, Anthony D'Offay, 1981, no. 25, illustrated.
R. Cork, David Bomberg, New Haven and London, 1987, pp. 131-2, pl. 169.
Exhibition catalogue, Bomberg: An Exhibition of Major Paintings and Drawings, London, Fischer Fine Art, 1988, p. 15, illustrated.

Exhibited

London, Anthony d'Offay, David Bomberg 1890-1957: Works from the Collection of Lilian Bomberg, February - April 1981, no. 25.
London, Fischer Fine Art, David Bomberg A Tribute to Lilian Bomberg, March - April 1985.
London, Fischer Fine Art, Bomberg: An Exhibition of Major Paintings and Drawings, March - April 1988, no. 4.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Richard Cork comments, 'The war had brought about a profound change in Bomberg's vision of the world, and the two small self-portraits he executed around this time investigate the possibilities of a surprisingly naturalistic idiom (pls. 168-9). One of them [the present work], a stern profile view posed like a police photograph, suggests that his features had lost little of the jutting belligerence and determination which characterized the young Bomberg' (op. cit., p. 132).

More from 20th Century British Art

View All