Dame Elisabeth Frink, R.A. (1930-1993)
Dame Elisabeth Frink, R.A. (1930-1993)

Helmet Head

Details
Dame Elisabeth Frink, R.A. (1930-1993)
Helmet Head
signed and dated 'Frink 67' (lower right)
pencil and watercolour
28½ x 21¼ in. (72.4 x 54 cm.)
Provenance
Purchased by the present owner at the 1997 exhibition.
Literature
Exhibition catalogue, London, Elisabeth Frink Sculptures and Drawings 1966-1993, Lumley Cazalet Ltd, London, 1997, no. 18, illustrated.
Exhibited
London, Lumley Cazalet Ltd., Elisabeth Frink Sculptures and Drawings 1966-1993, June - July 1997, no. 18.

Lot Essay

From 1966, the year Frink moved to France, 'Frink made a major series of drawings of male heads. The typology she chose to explore was not reassuring. Her men were brutes; they wear helmets, and have enormous chins, tiny ears and low foreheads, so that the helmet - a low, quasi-medieval affair - comes right down over the brow ... One aspect of these heads especially worth comment is the fashion in which Frink delineated mouths and teeth. In almost all cases the lips, somewhat thinner than those of the Judas heads, do not entirely cover the serried rows of teeth - a feature which gives these warriors a peculiarly predatory air' (E. Lucie-Smith, Elisabeth Frink Sculpture Since 1984 and Drawings, London, 1994, p. 110).

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