The Temptation of Saint Anthony

Details

Michael Ayrton (1921-1975)
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
signed, inscribed and dated 'Michael Ayrton/Temptation of St Anthony/No X 1942' (lower right)
watercolour, bodycolour and ink
13½ x 18 in. (34.3 x 45.7 cm.)

Provenance

with Agnew's, London, 1984.

Literature

J. Laver, Paintings by Michael Ayrton, London, 1948, p. 11.

Exhibited

London, Redfern Gallery, The Temptation of St Anthony and related studies, July 1943, catalogue not traced.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

In his youth Ayrton was fascinated by the story of the hermit Saint Anthony who had resisted temptation from demonic visions. From 1942 the Temptation of St. Anthony became an obsessional theme for Ayrton. He 'painted his own arms and legs to shadow the muscles and emphasize the veins before executing, with the use of mirrors, the figure of St. Anthony from himself. This was exceptional, marking his deep emotional relationship with St. Anthony, since Michael Ayrton very rarely worked from posed models' (see P. Cannon-Brooks, Michael Ayrton, Oxford, 1978, p. 11).

James Gordon has suggested that the present work may be a design for a backdrop for Ayrton's friend Cecil Gray's 1937 opera St Anthony, which was never produced.

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