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Lot Essay
From the painter of hawkers, gypsies and peasant portraits, the sleeping nude comes as a surprise1. Although exceptional in the oeuvre, like many British hispagnolistes of the 1920s who looked to Zuloaga and Villegas rather than Sorolla, Isabel Codrington may well have seen provocative reclining nudes such as the Mlle Souty, Nude, 1921 (Pedraza Castle Museum, Spain)2. Apperley, Dugdale, Kelly, De Glehn and others painted reclining nudes during the twenties, but none is quite so sensitively handled as that of Codrington. Her model's attenuated torso, pale skin, and the cool, silken cloths and cushions on which she rests, recall the classic confections of Ingres. Codrington's intimisme however, depends upon the obvious conceit that we discover her glorious odalisque asleep.
This major work was Codrington's last submission to the Royal Academy. Towards the end of her life she came to believe that her eyesight was failing and she could no longer see colour. This was clearly not the case at the time Drowsy Summer Days was painted since the picture contains some of her most subtle transitions in the treatment of flesh and fabric. The closest comparison we are able to make is with The Bath (sold Christie's 16 June 2010), a work first exhibited in 1920.3
In a revealing comparison between De Glehn's Firelight and Laura Knight's The Artist's Model the aged Alfred Lys Baldry referred to the 'idealized rendering of the female nude as seen by a male painter and the frank fidelity of the female nude of the woman artist who has no illusions about the beauty of her sex'.4
Knight's classic canvas reeks of the life room; it refers to the nude as an objective study. While not neglecting the need for objectivity, Codrington comes much closer to her male contemporary. Firelight is exchanged for sunlight filtered through lace curtains in the boudoir on a drowsy summer day. The model's book is cast aside, her arms have fallen by her side, her head has sunk into a pillow and the whole scene is a debauch in pastel and pearl.
1 For a brief account of Codrington's career see Christie's 16 June 2010, p. 20.
2 Modern Spanish painters of the Generación del 98, were frequently reproduced in publications like Colour magazine in the 1920s alongside works by Codrington and other British figurative painters.
3 It is possible that Drowsy Summer Days was painted much earlier in Codrington's career, but held back until the mid-thirties before being shown.
4 AL Baldry, Contemporary Figure Painters, 1926 (Special Winter Number of The Studio), p. 9
K Mc.
This major work was Codrington's last submission to the Royal Academy. Towards the end of her life she came to believe that her eyesight was failing and she could no longer see colour. This was clearly not the case at the time Drowsy Summer Days was painted since the picture contains some of her most subtle transitions in the treatment of flesh and fabric. The closest comparison we are able to make is with The Bath (sold Christie's 16 June 2010), a work first exhibited in 1920.
In a revealing comparison between De Glehn's Firelight and Laura Knight's The Artist's Model the aged Alfred Lys Baldry referred to the 'idealized rendering of the female nude as seen by a male painter and the frank fidelity of the female nude of the woman artist who has no illusions about the beauty of her sex'.
Knight's classic canvas reeks of the life room; it refers to the nude as an objective study. While not neglecting the need for objectivity, Codrington comes much closer to her male contemporary. Firelight is exchanged for sunlight filtered through lace curtains in the boudoir on a drowsy summer day. The model's book is cast aside, her arms have fallen by her side, her head has sunk into a pillow and the whole scene is a debauch in pastel and pearl.
K Mc.