Graham Sutherland, O.M.

Probably acquired by Wilfrid A. Evill November 1951 for £70.0.0, by whom bequeathed to Honor Frost in 1963

Germany, British Council, Contemporary British Art, Veranstalter in Deutschland: Die Brücke, 1948-9, cat. no.64;
London, The Leicester Galleries, New Year Exhibition, January 1952, cat. no.76;
Hampstead, The Home of Wilfrid A. Evill, Contemporary Art Society, Catalogue of the Greater Portion of a Collection of Modern English Paintings, Water Colours, Drawings and Sculpture Belonging to W. A. Evill, March 1955, cat. no.41;
London, The Home of Wilfrid A. Evill, Contemporary Art Society, Pictures, Drawings, Water Colours and Sculpture, April - May 1961, (part III- section 3) cat. no.15;
Brighton, Brighton Art Gallery, The Wilfrid Evill Memorial Exhibition, June - August 1965, cat. no.255.

 

The following condition report has been compiled by Jane McAusland FIIC, Conservator and Restorer of Art on Paper: Support The artist has used a sheet of hand-made paper adhered to a thick pulp board. The condition is good. Medium The medium is generally in a good condition though there are some slight losses to the light green pigment in the lower left and right quadrant. Pigment losses also show in the black in the top centre. Otherwise it is bright with only a little typical fading to the pink pigment. Note: This work was viewed outside studio conditions. For enquiries about the present work please contact the department on +44 (0)20 7293 6424.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Sutherland made his first visit to the South of France in 1947, returning for prolonged periods each year until, in 1955, he and Kathleen purchased the house at Menton which was to become their principal home.

The exposure to this vibrant region released a much brighter palette into his work, along with a specifically Mediterranean range of subject matter, such as vines, palms, cicadas and gourds. The spiky and anthropomorphic shapes of the palm trees particularly caught his attention, perhaps linking back to the thorn trees he had been previously painting as well as the gnarled branches of the Welsh hedgerows he had studied prior to WWII, and many of the first paintings and studies produced in France explore these themes. Thus the present work can be seen to date from a point in his oeuvre where the artist was drawing together the anthropomorphic and organic themes of his earlier work with the liberating colours of southern Europe. The implied thick ribbed and rubbery texture of the banana leaf which arches over the composition must have appeared highly exotic to a British audience in the immediate post-war period, but this sort of imagery, with its suggestion of sun and the warm south must have struck a chord as we see it appearing in not just the work of Sutherland, but also that of many of his younger contemporaries, such as Minton, Freud and Craxton.