Cat VI (Two Cats)

Details

Desmond Morris (b. 1928)
Cat VI (Two Cats)
signed with initials and dated 'DM/49' (lower left)
oil (printer's ink) and watercolour
13 x 8 in. (33 x 20.5 cm.)

Literature

M. Remy, The Surrealist World of Desmond Morris, London, 1991, p. 44, illustrated. S.Levy, Desmond Morris: Analytical Catalogue Raisonné 1944-2000, Antwerp, 2001, no.149/52, p. 150, illustrated.

Exhibited

London, Mayor Gallery, Desmond Morris: Works on Paper 1947-1988, November - December 1989, no. 7.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis. 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.

Lot Essay

This is the sixth of a series of twenty foolscap monotypes with a feline theme. Morris' Swindon studio was rarely without cats and kittens during the 1940s and in 1949 he decided to make them the focus of a suite of works. These were executed using the 'monotype' technique, which involves transferring printer's ink from a glass plate onto paper. The image is drawn in pencil on the reverse of a sheet of paper that has been pressed onto the ink. As the paper is lifted a degree of smudging occurs. On the reverse side of this work, therefore, there is a mirror image pencil drawing. Originally, Morris had left his monotypes uncoloured, as black oil on white paper. During the 1980s and 1990s he hand tinted the monotypes that remained in his studio.

S.L.

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