A Recollection: Conder, Max, Rothenstein and Wilde at the Café Royal

Details

SIR MAX BEERBOHM (1872-1956)
A Recollection: Conder, Max, Rothenstein and Wilde at the Café Royal
signed, inscribed and dated 'Is this / what you/ would / imply, / Will? / Max / 1929' (centre left) and with inscription
ink and grey wash, with a passage from Rothenstein’s Men and Memories pasted onto the sketch upper left
7 7⁄8 x 11 1⁄8 in. (20 x 28 cm.)
Executed in 1929.

Provenance

with The Leicester Galleries, London.
John Arlott O.B.E. (1914-1991); (†) Christie's, London, 25 September 1992, lot 48, where acquired by the late Barry Humphries.

Literature

W. Rothenstein, Men and Memories, Recollections of William Rothenstein 1872-1900, London, 1931, illustrated facing p. 220.
Art & The Home, London, 1931, vol. II, no. 7, p. 52.
R. Hart-Davis, A Catalogue of the Caricatures of Max Beerbohm, London, 1972, p.123, no. 1322.
T. Sato and L. Lambourne, The Wilde Years Oscar Wilde & the Art of his time, London, 2000, p. 93, cat. no. 33, illustrated.
S. Calloway and C. Corbeau Parsons, Aubrey Beardsley, London, 2020, illustrated p. 110.

Exhibited

Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, Charles Conder, September-October 1967, no. 28 (lent by John Arlott, Esq.).
London, Barbican Art Galleries, The Wilde Years: Oscar Wilde & the Art of His Time, October 2000-January 2001, no.33.
London, Tate Britain and Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Aubrey Beardsley, 2020, no. 195.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Benedict Winter Associate Director, Specialist

Lot Essay

‘I was often called upon for sympathy when Conder was in difficulties. Sober men are, alas, poor comforters, and sorry companions for men crowned with vine leaves. ‘Will, don’t look so sensible,’ said Oscar Wilde one evening, as I sat with him and Conder and Max at the Café Royal. I looked too often at my watch; perhaps a sitter was waiting, and Conder’s dreamy eyes would become mocking. ‘Oh, Will, do stay; the Bird of Time has but a little way to flutter, and the Bird is on the wing.’ But sensible at bottom I was. The wine that was red did not call up visions in me as it did in Conder.’ (W. Rothenstein, op. cit., p. 74).

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