Female Nude IV |
Sketch Book No 1 - 12 Drawings
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| Medium: |
Pencil |
| Date of Work: |
1926 |
Dimensions
(inches HxW) |
11.70" x
8.78" |
was £6,750, now £4,750
After studying art in Chichester Gill moved to London in 1900 where he was an architectural pupil for three years. During that time he also attended classes in practical masonry, illumination and calligraphy and it
was this unusually diverse and comprehensive training which underpinned Gill’s later fame as a sculptor, draughtsman, engraver,
letter-cutter, calligrapher and typographic designer.
During the period 1907-24 Gill lived at Ditchling, Sussex where a notable commune of artists developed around him, including David Jones, Philip Hagreen and Edward Johnston. In 1921 Gill, a Roman Catholic, formed these artists into a religious order called the Guild of St. Joseph & St. Dominic which is still extant.
In 1924 Gill created another community at Capel y Ffin in Wales but its isolated situation made it unsustainable and after four years
he moved to Pigotts near High Wycombe where he remained until his death in 1940.
The Drawings
These twelve drawings of nudes date from May/June 1926 when Gill, as vividly described by his biographer Robert Speaight, was known to have been in Paris with its infinite varieties. He saw Grock at the Palace and Josephine Baker’s Danse de Ventre (belly dance) at the Folies Bergère. He…looked in at a strange place
…where the girls were lasciviously posturing in the nude. He drew from some models at the Académie Chaumière…[and] heard Mass at
St. Séverin and St. Julien-le-Pauvre.
In short Gill combined three major elements of his life within a few weeks, namely art, eroticism and religion.
Illustrated in the book First Nudes Eric Gill Published in 1954 (not for sale).
Introduction by Sir John Rothenstein, then Director of the Tate Gallery, and one of his greatest admirers.
First Nudes contains twenty-four original and hitherto unknown sketches by one of the greatest craftsmen of the twentieth century and, in view of his later development, these first life drawings of men and women are of particular interest. They show an artist at the outset of his career before his genius was recognised and, even in this early stage, the economy and clarity of line for which he became so justly famous. |
| Price: |
£4,750 |
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Price inclusive of frame, VAT & UK shipping
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