Edward Burra

Lefevre Gallery, London
Sir John Keswick, by 1977
Redfern Gallery, London, where acquired by the present owners, 12th June 1984

London, Lefevre Gallery, Recent Works by Edward Burra, April - May 1969, cat. no.1;
London, Tate Gallery, Edward Burra, 1973, cat. no.134;
London, Royal Academy, British Painting 1952-1977, September - November 1977, cat. no.63;
New York University, Grey Art Gallery & Study Centre, A Sense of Place: The Paintings of Edward Burra and Paul Nash, February - April 1982, unnumbered catalogue;
Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Creation, 15th August - 14th October 1984, cat. no.20;
London, Hayward Gallery, Edward Burra, August – September 1985, cat. no.124, and touring to Southampton Art Gallery, Leeds City Art Gallery and Norwich Castle Museum.

Andrew Causey, Edward Burra: Complete Catalogue, Phaidon, Oxford 1985, cat. no.354.

The following condition report has been compiled by the paper conservator and restorer, Jane McAusland Support Typically Burra has laid this large watercolour onto a board after working on the sheet of wove paper that supports it. There are artist pinholes at the corners. The condition is good. Medium The medium is fresh, bright and unfaded and also in a good condition. Note This work was viewed behind glass and outside studio conditions. Held in a plaster gilt frame under glass; unexamined out of frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 5381 if you have any queries regarding this work. Note: This work was viewed behind glass and outside studio conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Landscape was very much a part of Burra's work from the earliest periods, but it is only towards the end of his career when it became a subject to which he devoted a concerted effort.

From the mid 1960s onwards, he made a number of motoring tours around Britain with his sister Anne, often to the more remote and less populous areas such as the Fens, the Lake District, the Yorkshire Moors, Devon and Cornwall, and, as here, the Welsh borders. He visited the Wye Valley area in 1968, and the present work shows the dramatic geological feature of Symond's Yat and the River Wye. Created from memory, Burra's interpretation of the view changes and exaggerates the landscape to imbue it with an anthropomorphism and drama that has more than a little of the Romantic about it and suggests comparisons with images such as James Ward's Gordale Scar (Tate Collection). Although a popular visitor destination, Burra has removed all obvious human references to concentrate the viewer on the grand sweep of the lansdcape and the vista beyond. The inclusion of the wheeling gulls in the foreground also reminds us that the artist has taken a rather high viewpoint for the painting, and this feature is something that is common to a number of his late landscapes.

Burra also painted a second work in this area, Wye Valley II (Private Collection) but which is entirely opposite in character. Presented from almost ground level, this painting is filled with evidence of man, with roads, traffic, houses and a bridge, which, combined with an upright format, presents a very different image of the same location.