Standing form: red background

Details

Graham Sutherland, O.M. (1903-1980)
Standing form: red background
pencil, watercolour, black crayon and bodycolour; lightly squared
15¾ x 7 in. (40 x 17.7 cm.)
Executed in 1949

Provenance

with the Hanover Gallery, Ltd, London.
Ronald Alley, Esq.
with Marlborough Fine Art Ltd, London.
Lord Cottesloe, G.B.E.; Christie's, London, 13 July 1973, lot 318, (3,000 gns.).
with Joseph Wolpe Fine Art, Cape Town.
Mr A.R. Martin, Looe, Cornwall.

Literature

D. Cooper, Graham Sutherland, London, 1961, p. 80, pl. 118d.

Exhibited

Venice, XXVI Biennale, 1952, no. 240.
British Council, Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne, Sutherland, November 1952, no. 40; this exhibition travelled to Amsterdam, Gemeente Musea and Zurich.
London, Tate Gallery, Graham Sutherland, May-August 1953, no. 41.
Vienna, Akadamie der bildenden Künste, Sutherland, 1954; this exhibition travelled to Innsbruck, Berlin, Cologne, Stuttgart, Mannheim and Hamburg.

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

Sutherland started to paint pictures of 'standing forms' in 1949 partly because of his interest in found objects, objects which appeared to be figurative in a sense and which he wanted to place in an environment, and partly because he was staying in a house at St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat which had an old garden, with creeper-covered hedges and old walls. (see R. Alley, Sutherland, Tate Gallery catalogue, May-July 1982, pp. 117-8). The artist describes their origins, 'The standing forms stemmed from seeing figures in gardens - half-hidden in shade. At the time I wanted to try and do forms in such a setting which were not figures but parallel to figures - figures once removed.' (Graham Sutherland interviewed by John Hayes, National Portrait Gallery catalogue, June 1977).

More from BRITISH ART ON PAPER

View All