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Lot 181 WORKS ON PAPER FROM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY AVANT-GARDES
The Collection of a Scholar, Sold to Benefit Humanitarian Causes
The Collection of a Scholar, Sold to Benefit Humanitarian Causes
Graham Sutherland, O.M. (1903-1980)
Cactus
Closed28 June 2017
Price Realised
GBP 10,000
More Information
Specialist note
STUDIES FROM IMPORTANT BODIES OF WORK
BY GRAHAM SUTHERLAND
The four works by Sutherland included in this collection (lots 141-142, 181-182) represent several dominant motifs the artist adopted from the late-1930s into the early 1950s, during the Second World War and in its aftermath. All but one of these motifs are represented by important oil paintings which inhabit prominent public art collections: Cactus from 1950 at the University of Michigan Art Museum see lot 181), Thorn Trees from 1945 in the Collection of the British Council (see lot 182), Entrance to a Lane from 1939 residing at the Tate, London (see lot 141).
Created in the artist’s home town of Trottiscliffe, Kent, Cactus echoes Sutherland’s War-period themes in its thorny appearance. However, this particular subject, with its rounded, softer, appearance derives from Sutherlands trips to the South of France, after the War, where he discovered a myriad of new subjects, including the cactus. This 1950 composition hints towards the fugitive line form of Arshile Gorky’s early 1940s canvases, with stark, black ink, contrasted against saturated swathes of earthy colour and delicate palimpsests of pencil, ink, gouache veiling one another to create lyrical, layered dialogues.
BY GRAHAM SUTHERLAND
The four works by Sutherland included in this collection (lots 141-142, 181-182) represent several dominant motifs the artist adopted from the late-1930s into the early 1950s, during the Second World War and in its aftermath. All but one of these motifs are represented by important oil paintings which inhabit prominent public art collections: Cactus from 1950 at the University of Michigan Art Museum see lot 181), Thorn Trees from 1945 in the Collection of the British Council (see lot 182), Entrance to a Lane from 1939 residing at the Tate, London (see lot 141).
Created in the artist’s home town of Trottiscliffe, Kent, Cactus echoes Sutherland’s War-period themes in its thorny appearance. However, this particular subject, with its rounded, softer, appearance derives from Sutherlands trips to the South of France, after the War, where he discovered a myriad of new subjects, including the cactus. This 1950 composition hints towards the fugitive line form of Arshile Gorky’s early 1940s canvases, with stark, black ink, contrasted against saturated swathes of earthy colour and delicate palimpsests of pencil, ink, gouache veiling one another to create lyrical, layered dialogues.