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Lot Essay
Across the Modern British and Irish Art Evening and Day sales, Christie’s are delighted to be offering a group of works by Edward Wadsworth, which are being sold directly from the artist’s family. This group demonstrates Wadsworth’s skill and diversity, and is led by his striking early Self Portrait in a Turban of 1911 (please see lot 14 in the Evening sale), painted the year he won First prize for Figure Painting at the Slade School of Art. In the Day sale, works from all decades of his career are represented: from the earliest work of 1912, a rare oil painting depicting Gran Canaria where he and his wife Fanny spent their honeymoon; to a 1944 tempera painting Straight from the Tap I, which came about as part of a war-time commission from the ICI in which a stylised female figure occupies her domestic environment. These works have remained in the artist’s family since they were painted, and not only do they confirm Wadsworth’s position within the avant-garde of the time, but they also document the more private life of the artist and his family.
For works from this collection please see lot 14 in the Modern British and Irish Art Evening sale on 18 October, and lots 103-108 in the Modern British and Irish Art Day sale on 19 October.
In April 1912, Edward Wadsworth and his wife Fanny travelled to Gran Canaria on their honeymoon. Barbara Wadsworth, the couple's daughter and her father's biographer, described the island as 'then not at all the fashionable tourist territory that it is today. Instead, it was almost unknown, except to those in the shipping business: La Luz, the port on Grand Canary, was one of the main Atlantic coaling stations for steamers' (B. Wadsworth, Edward Wadsworth: A Painter’s Life, Salisbury, 1989, p. 37).
The present work is one of only two recorded paintings from this trip. The large dominant hill in the composition likely depicts the Bandama Caldera, a large volcanic crater on the island, which the inscription on the painting's reverse appears to refer to. Barbara Wadsworth writes, 'He went into the mountains, too, and one of his landscapes has survived - a view across fields and an escarpment to pinkish-purple hills in what appears to be early morning light' (B. Wadsworth, Edward Wadsworth: A Painter’s Life, Salisbury, 1989, p. 38).
For works from this collection please see lot 14 in the Modern British and Irish Art Evening sale on 18 October, and lots 103-108 in the Modern British and Irish Art Day sale on 19 October.
In April 1912, Edward Wadsworth and his wife Fanny travelled to Gran Canaria on their honeymoon. Barbara Wadsworth, the couple's daughter and her father's biographer, described the island as 'then not at all the fashionable tourist territory that it is today. Instead, it was almost unknown, except to those in the shipping business: La Luz, the port on Grand Canary, was one of the main Atlantic coaling stations for steamers' (B. Wadsworth, Edward Wadsworth: A Painter’s Life, Salisbury, 1989, p. 37).
The present work is one of only two recorded paintings from this trip. The large dominant hill in the composition likely depicts the Bandama Caldera, a large volcanic crater on the island, which the inscription on the painting's reverse appears to refer to. Barbara Wadsworth writes, 'He went into the mountains, too, and one of his landscapes has survived - a view across fields and an escarpment to pinkish-purple hills in what appears to be early morning light' (B. Wadsworth, Edward Wadsworth: A Painter’s Life, Salisbury, 1989, p. 38).