goldmark aug 2010
Humphrey Spender
1. Mykonos mixed media, 2002, signed, 13.2 x 20.2 cm
ÂŁ850 Humphrey Spender (1910-2005), brother of the poet Stephen Spender, studied art history in Germany, then qualified as an architect in London. Between 1934 -39 he worked as a photographer and is best known for his images of the depression and poverty during the 1930s. It was only after the war that Spender concentrated seriously on painting and in 1953 he started teaching at the Royal College of Art. He is recorded as saying he hoped that his paintings might make people see differently.
ARTISTS INDEX Davison, Francis Epstein, Jacob Erni, Hans
20,21 9-11
John, Augustus John, Gwen
30-32
Lowry, L S
Gross, Anthony
12,13
Mason, Paul
Hogarth, Paul
18,19
Moore, Henry
6,7
Orpen, William
2,3
Picasso, Pablo
26,27
Piper, John
22-25
28,29 back cover 14,15
Rodin, Auguste Royds, Mabel
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4,5 16,17
Spender, Humphrey Underwood, Leon
above 1
Leon Underwood
2. Fishwife watercolour, c1930s, 39 x 28.5 cm authenticated on reverse by Leon Underwood’s widow
ÂŁ650 Leon Underwood (1890-1975) sculptor, painter and printmaker. Born in London, studied at the Royal Academy. Taught Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore, Eileen Agar, Blair Hughes-Stanton and Gertrude Hermes. Exhibited widely and work held in major public collections including V&A Museum, Ashmolean Museum, and the Tate.
to order phone 01572 821 424
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Gwen John
Gwen John (1876-1939) was born at Haverfordwest in South Wales, the daughter of a solicitor and brother to the artist Augustus John. Following her brother by a year John was a student at the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1895-98 where her most important tutors were Fred Brown and Philip Wilson Steer. Fellow students included William Orpen, Ambrose McEvoy, Ida Nettleship (she later married Augustus John), Ursula Tyrwhitt and Gwen Salmond (later Mrs. Matthew Smith).
National Portrait Gallery
In 1898 John studied at Whistler’s school in Paris, the Académie Carmen, before returning to London the following year. In 1900 she exhibited with the New English Art Club for the first time but four years later she returned to France where she virtually lived for the remainder of her life. It was in 1904 that she met the sculptor Auguste Rodin and subsequently became both his model and his mistress. After the end of their relationship she continued to write to Rodin, almost obsessively, and was deeply disturbed by his death in 1917. Many of her paintings remained in her studio at the time of her death and it is only in recent decades that her work has been widely recognised as if in fulfilment of her brother’s assessment of her, the greatest woman artist of her age, or, as I think, of any other. In recent years there have been important exhibitions of her work, for example at the Barbican Art Gallery (1985) and the Tate Gallery (2005, jointly with Augustus).
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Gwen John
3. Girl in a Cloche Hat pencil, c1920s, 16 x 15.5 cm
ÂŁ3750
visit www.recentacquisitions.com
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Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is widely regarded as the pre-eminent sculptor of the 19th century who in turn influenced many of the great sculptors of the 20th century. However it is only in recent decades that his watercolours, drawings and graphic works have begun to be seriously reassessed and also seen by a wider public at major retrospective exhibitions, for example National Gallery of Art, Washington (1972 & 1982), Hayward Gallery (1986), Royal Academy (2006) and St. Tropez & Seoul (2010). The drawings made by Rodin during the last decades of his life were often of explicitly erotic nude figures and for that reason were not initially exhibited in public.
A rare opportunity to acquire a Rodin drawing. From the estate of the notable Swiss collector, Herbert Gross who died in the early 1970s.
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all prices include framing, vat and uk delivery
Auguste Rodin
4. Young Woman pencil and watercolour on lined paper, c1900-09 initialled, 22 x 15.5 cm
ÂŁ14,500
visit www.rodinprints.com
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Augustus John The subject of this oil painting is Vivien John (19151994) the younger daughter of the artist Augustus John and his wife Dorelia. Vivien was never sent to school and seems to have spent an idyllic and bohemian childhood running barefoot around the countryside, riding ponies and spending time with gypsies. She became an artist and was allowed by her father to attend the Slade School upon the somewhat perverse condition that she received no instruction! Michael Holroyd in his acclaimed biography of Augustus John commented, his greatest portraits are not generally of the great ... from commissioned portraits, with all their rules of vanity and forced politeness, he turned with relief back to the ranks of his family. However for Viven it was sometimes an ordeal as she was first portrayed at the age of two-and-a-half and, again quoting Holroyd, tears were stemmed with lumps of sugar: and the painting went remorselessly on. At all times John insisted upon absolute immobility, the slightest movement of the head or body being corrected with the point of a brush used like a conductor’s baton. Nevertheless she continued to be regularly painted by her father and although Mannerist Nude is not dated it can safely be ascribed to the 1930s given her birth date in 1915.
5. Mannerist Nude (Vivien) charcoal and oil on canvas, c1935-40, 160.3 x 61 cm
ÂŁ24,500 Provenance: A John Studio Sale Christie's 20.7.62 number 162. Christie's 12.11.87. Piccadilly Gallery July 1992, Bernard Silverman Esq.
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Sir William Orpen
6. Augustus John's Gurnsey was ÂŁ8500, now ÂŁ4950
pen and ink, 22.5 x 17 cm,
Drawing of Orpen's friend Augustus John on the back of a letter to the painter Ambrose McEvoy. The letter refers to the length of time that John had spent wearing the Gurnsey. Orpen also made a famous painting of John which hangs in The National Portrait Gallery.
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George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Irish born, Shaw was initially a music and literary critic but is of course best known as a playwright. An ardent socialist he wrote numerous tracts for the Fabian Society and many of his sixty or so plays dealt with social problems, usually leavened with strong veins of comedy. Shaw remains the only person to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938).
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Jacob Epstein
The bronze bust stands 64.2 cm. tall and is from an edition of five casts. The background to the creation of this work was described by Epstein in his autobiography as follows: Shaw sat on condition that I was commissioned to do the work. He thought I ought to benefit materially and not just do his bust for its own sake. Orage [an influential left-wing editor] arranged a commission for me from Mrs. Blanche Grant, an American. Shaw sat with exemplary patience and even eagerness. He walked to my studio every day, and was punctual and conscientious. He wisecracked of course. In matters of Art he aired definite opinions, mostly wrong, and I often had to believe that he wished to say smart things to amuse me … Shaw was puzzled by the bust of himself and often looked at it and tried to make it out … I never tried to explain the bust to him, and I think that there are elements so subtle that they would be difficult to explain. Nevertheless, I believe this to be an authentic and faithful rendering of George Bernard Shaw physically and psychologically. I leave out any question of aesthetics, as that would be beyond Shaw’s comprehension.
7. First Portrait of George Bernard Shaw (Bust) bronze, 1934, ed 5 signed, 62 x 53 cm
£48,500
Epstein’s autobiography was first published in 1940 and after reading it Shaw wrote him a letter about the bust saying, your first sketch …is a brilliant thumbnail version of me as I am. Then you went on to perform marvels of modelling lips and cheeks and mouth with all the mastery that makes your busts precious.
visit www.jacobepsteinsculpture.com and watch our short film
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Anthony Gross
Aged only 18 Gross went to study at the Académie Julian and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He became and remained a Francophile spending much of the interwar period in France. Gross met his future wife in Paris and in 1940, as the invading German Army occupied France, he evacuated with his family on one of the last ships to leave Bordeaux. As an Official War Artist he landed in Normandy on D-Day apparently holding his artist’s materials above his head as he waded ashore at Arromanches. He painted prolifically as he followed the Allied troops across France, was present at the Liberation of Paris and subsequently went on into Germany. Post-war Gross frequently visited France and in 1955 he purchased a house at Le Boulvé in the Lot Valley west of Cahors. He then settled into a lifelong pattern of living and working there during the summer but returning to London each winter. Belaye, the subject of this fine oil painting by Gross, is a village some 5 miles from Le Boulvé. Gross obviously found this landscape stimulating as he made 2 etchings of the subject, one of which was replicated as a Christmas card.
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visit www.anthonygross.com
Anthony Gross
8. Belaye oil on canvas, 1958, signed, 130 x 89.2 cm
ÂŁ8,750
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Henry Moore Henry Moore, who is generally regarded as the pre-eminent British sculptor of the 20th century, was born at Castleford in Yorkshire. He studied at Leeds School of Art for two years before winning a scholarship to study sculpture at the Royal College of Art in London. Whilst there he started to develop an appreciation of African and South American art which was later reflected in his sculpture. By the late 1930s Moore’s early engagement with primitivism followed by abstract and surrealist work meant that he was recognised as the foremost avant-garde sculptor in the country. In the 1950s and 60s Moore’s sculpture became known to a wider public and his international reputation was established with a series of public sculptures often identified by his trademark hole through his sculptural forms.
9. Animal (Horse) bronze, 1960, ed 6, 18 x 14 cm,
£26,500
This sculpture is illustrated in Henry Moore, Complete Sculpture, vol 3 No 448 page 27. The sculpture was made in 1960 and cast in 1965.
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visit www.henrymooreprints.com
Mabel Royds
10. Tree Roots II oil on board, c1934, signed, 50.5 x 40.5 cm
£2500 After the success of her prints, we are pleased to offer these two oils from Royds’ estate.
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Mabel Royds
11. St. Abbs Farmyard oil on board, 40.2 x 50.5 cm
ÂŁ2500 Mabel Royds was born in Bedfordshire in 1872. Aged only fifteen, she won a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools and later studied at the Slade. By 1900 Royds was in Paris where she met and worked with Walter Sickert. After marrying the etcher E.S. Lumsden, she travelled extensively before settling in Scotland where she continued to paint and make prints - particularly influenced by her visits to India and the Himalayas. She died in 1941.
to order phone 01572 821 424
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Paul Hogarth
12. Baltic Fisherman
13. Russian Peasant
pencil, 1953, signed, 40 x 48.2 cm
pencil and wash, 1955, signed, 49.8 x 28 cm
£650
£450
Paul Hogarth (1917-2001) fought in the Spanish Civil War before continuing his art studies at St. Martin’s School of Art. Much of his early art showed his left wing leanings and he is on record as saying he wanted to be a communicator rather than a painter. He travelled extensively, illustrating books by Robert Graves, Gerald Durrell and collaborating with Doris Lessing, Stephen Spender and Graham Greene. He is among the top artist-reporters of the last 100 years… always backed with concern and awareness. Ronald Searle
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Paul Hogarth
14. Slovakian Mountain Village pencil, 1954, signed, 18 x 48.2 cm
ÂŁ450
15. African Village pencil and wash, 1954 or 56, signed, 39.8 x 53.8 cm
ÂŁ850
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Francis Davison
16. Cottage with Smoking Chimney oil on board, 1950-51, 50 x 35.3 cm
ÂŁ7450
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visit www.francisdavisonart.com
Francis Davison
17. Colourful Cottage oil on card, c1950-51, 28.5 x 40 cm
ÂŁ6750
Davison, born 1919 in London, studied at Cambridge, where he read English and Anthropology. He moved to St Ives in 1946 at the suggestion of his friend Patrick Heron. There he met artist Margaret Mellis and they moved to the south of France before settling in Suffolk in 1950. The landscape paintings of this time betray the impact of Cornwall in their economy of colour and descriptive elements and are close to the work of William Scott and Roger Hilton. By 1952 Davison had begun to work in collage. We feel that he will soon be seen to stand with the best of his generation.
to order phone 01572 821 424
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John Piper
18. La Chapelle St. Robert, Dordogne screenprint, 1968, ed 70, signed, 59 x 80 cm
ÂŁ1950
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all prices include framing, vat and uk delivery
John Piper
19. St. Amand-de-Coly, Dordogne screenprint, 1968, ed 70, signed, 58 x 77.4 cm
ÂŁ1550
visit www.johnpiperprints.com
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John Piper
20. Rural Berkshire collotype, c1976, signed, 41.9 x 36.7 cm
ÂŁ950
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John Piper
21. Reading Townscape collotype, c1976, signed, 41.9 x 36.7 cm
ÂŁ950
Both of these prints were made by the eminent collotype printers The Cotswold Collotype Company Ltd
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Pablo Picasso
Between 1958 and 1961 Picasso made many linocuts, a process that he found hugely stimulating. These linocuts were first issued in signed editions of 50 by Galerie Louise Leiris, many of which now sell at between £8,000 and £80,000 each. Picasso invented the ‘reduction’ method, progressively cutting the same linoblock for each new colour, making it impossible to take any further prints from the original plates. In 1962, in collaboration with Picasso and Galerie Louise Leiris, new linoleum plates were made at 42% of the original size, and it was from these that the prints on offer here were made.
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22. Mère, Danseur et Musicien linocut, 1962, 27 x 22 cm
visit www.pablopicassoprints.com
£395
Pablo Picasso
23. Deux Femmes linocut, 1962, 27 x 32.5 cm
£495
24. Après la Pique linocut, 1962, 27 x 32.5 cm
£495
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L S Lowry
Laurence Stephen Lowry was born in in 1887 in Manchester. From 1905-1915 he attended drawing and painting classes at the Municipal College of Art. He moved to Salford in 1909, where he was to live for nearly 40 years, and attended art classes at Salford School of Art, developing an interest in the urban and industrial landscape. Lowry exhibited with the Manchester Academy of Fine Arts from 1919 and at the RA. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1962, and was given freedom of the City of Salford in 1965. Lowry is unquestionably one of the most celebrated British artists and his unique contribution to recording the period, culture and landscape of the industrial north is without parallel.
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25. The Family offset lithograph, 1970, ed 850, signed, 26.4 x 21.3 cm
ÂŁ2250
Published by Adam Collection
visit www.recentacquisitions.com
L S Lowry
26. People Standing About offset lithograph, ed 500, signed, 33.4 x 49.6 cm
ÂŁ2500
Published by Penrose Fine Arts International
to order phone 01572 821 424
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Hans Erni
Born in Luzern, Switzerland in 1909 Hans Erni is still alive at the advanced age of 101 years. Initially he seems to have had no great impulse towards art, being apprenticed as a civil engineer and then an architect’s draughtsman. However in 1927 he studied at the Luzern School of Arts and Crafts followed the next year by a short period at the Académie Julian in Paris. During the 1930s Erni became increasingly interested in contemporary French painting, particularly Picasso and Braque. He joined the Abstraction Creation group and exhibited with many leading artists of the day including Arp, Brancusi, Calder, Gabo, Kandinsky, Mondrian and Moore. Erni’s artistic output is so diverse that perhaps fellow artist Rigby Graham best described it when he wrote, the list of his exhibitions is extensive, his achievements and activities too wide ranging to be dealt with adequately in this brief note. Among other things however he has designed medals, posters, postage stamps, stage sets for operas, tapestries and fabrics, produced mural reliefs in aluminium, copper and concrete. He has illustrated a formidable number of books from Sophocles to Sartre many of them with original etchings or lithographs, and for which he also designed elaborate craft-bindings. He has been the subject of several television films and among many civic awards have been the Grand Prix Europe-Arts Plastiques, the Ehrennadel of the City of Luzern and from the Secretary General Perez de Cuellar, the Peace Medal of the United Nations.
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Hans Erni
27. Head pencil, c1964, signed and inscribed, 17 x 12.5 cm
ÂŁ950
Hans Erni
28. Untitled lithograph, c1964, 30 x 58 cm centre fold as issued
ÂŁ350
29. Untitled lithograph, c1964, 30 x 29 cm
ÂŁ250
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We wish you all a great summer
goldmark
Paul Mason
30. Pineapple bronze with blue glass, 2003, initialled, 35 cm high
ÂŁ950 glass by Mark Taylor
Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham, Rutland, LE15 9SQ, 01572 821424 Open Monday to Saturday 9.30-5.30, Sunday 2.30-5.30 and Bank Holidays www.goldmarkart.com info@goldmarkart.com