Le Trayas

Details

Glyn Warren Philpot, R.A. (1884-1937)
Le Trayas
pen and ink and watercolour
14¾ x 11¾ in. (37.5 x 29.8 cm.)
Executed in 1937.

Provenance

Gabrielle Cross, the artist's niece.
Purchased by the present owner at the 1997 exhibition.

Literature

R. Gibson, exhibition catalogue, Glyn Philpot 1884 -1937: Edwardian Aesthete to Thirties Modernist, London, National Portrait Gallery, 1984, p. 111, illustrated.
Exhibition catalogue, Glyn Philpot, London, Fine Art Society, 1997, pp. 41, 51, illustrated.

Exhibited

Probably, London, Redfern Gallery, Glyn Philpot, November 1937, no. 44.
London, National Portrait Gallery, Glyn Philpot 1884-1937: Edwardian Aesthete to Thirties Modernist, November 1984 - February 1985, no. 105.
London, Fine Art Society, Glyn Philpot, November 1997 - January 1998, no. 40: this exhibition travelled to Chichester, Pallant House Gallery, February - March 1998.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

'The title of this impressive, almost surrealist landscape has been deduced by the elimination of others in the Redfern exhibition (1937). This extraordinary little deserted building clearly had some fascination for Philpot since it appears again twice in other watercolours ... Whatever the orginal purpose of the building in this Riviera resort, Philpot has here transformed it into a mysterious and poetic image, a temple for the personal mythology of his later years. Indeed its position in a deserted Mediterranean landscape seems almost certainly to have provided the inspiration for Two Muses at the Tomb of a Poet [1937, private collection]' (see R. Gibson, exhibition catalogue, loc. cit).

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