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Details
Lucian Freud (B. 1922)
The Bird (Hartley 1)
etching, 1946, on wove paper, an extremely rare impression, signed in blue crayon, numbered 2/3, with margins, pale light- and mount-staining, an unobtrusive fox mark in the lower image, remains of old glue at the upper sheet edges on the reverse, otherwise in good condition, framed
P. 106 x 152mm.; S. 165 x 252mm.
The Bird (Hartley 1)
etching, 1946, on wove paper, an extremely rare impression, signed in blue crayon, numbered 2/3, with margins, pale light- and mount-staining, an unobtrusive fox mark in the lower image, remains of old glue at the upper sheet edges on the reverse, otherwise in good condition, framed
P. 106 x 152mm.; S. 165 x 252mm.
Provenance
A gift from the artist to Rodney Phillips.
By bequest to the present owner.
By bequest to the present owner.
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.
Further details
'The Bird' is Freud's first etching. Etched in his hotel wash-basin during a visit to Paris, it depicts one of the tiny birds he had bought at a bird market during his stay there. The graphic vocabulary of the medium was well suited to his drawing style at the time, the cross hatching, stipples and dashes characteristic of the etching needle corresponding to the detailed, miniaturist mark-making of his drawings. According to Craig Hartley, in his book 'The Etchings of Lucian Freud', the medium was for Freud, at this time, an extension of his activities as a draughtsman. Freud executed only six etchings from 1946-1948, after which he abandoned the medium for 34 years. This impression of 'The Bird' is one of only three recorded copies, of which one is held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Caracas.