- 29
Graham Sutherland, O.M.
Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 GBP
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Description
- Graham Sutherland, O.M.
- Trees on a River Bank
- signed
- oil on canvas
- 95 by 110cm.; 37½ by 43½in.
- Executed in 1971.
Provenance
Giorgio Soavi, Milan, and thence by descent to the present owner
Exhibited
Milan, Galleria Bergamini, Sutherland: Sketchbook, October - November 1974, cat. no.9, illustrated;
London, Tate Gallery, Graham Sutherland, 1st April - 30th September 1975, cat. no.207, illustrated, where lent by the present owner.
London, Tate Gallery, Graham Sutherland, 1st April - 30th September 1975, cat. no.207, illustrated, where lent by the present owner.
Literature
Francesco Arcangeli, Graham Sutherland, Fratelli Fabbri Editori, Milan, 1973, illustrated pl.165;
Roberto Sanesi, Graham Sutherland, Centro D'Arte, Zarathustra, 1979, p.134, illustrated pl.93;
John Hayes, The Art of Graham Sutherland, Phaidon, Oxford, 1980, p.160, illustrated pl.135.
Roberto Sanesi, Graham Sutherland, Centro D'Arte, Zarathustra, 1979, p.134, illustrated pl.93;
John Hayes, The Art of Graham Sutherland, Phaidon, Oxford, 1980, p.160, illustrated pl.135.
Condition
Original canvas. The work has been squared for transfer, as visible about the centre of the composition. There are tiny pin holes visible to the surface, mainly towards the centre of the composition, which appear to correspond to the transfer grid.
There are signs of frame abrasion to the extreme edges and corners. These are only visible upon very close inspection, and do not detract from the overall appearance of the work. There is also a very minor horizontal surface scratch visible to the edge of the central right hand edge.
Ultraviolet light reveals a small spot of fluorescence to the edge of the centre of the upper edge, to the right of the tree. Other pigments fluoresce, which appear in keeping with the nature of the artist's materials.
Tightly float-mounted in a thick dark wooden frame.
Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present lot.
"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."
"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."
Catalogue Note
When Sutherland revisited Pembrokeshire in 1967, it was the first time in over twenty years that he had found himself in the landscape that had inspired his early career. The trip was connected to a film on his work that was being made by the Italian director Pierpaolo Ruggerini, and his re-engagement with the place was immediate and powerful. So intense was this connection that Sutherland found himself bitterly regretting the time he had been away; ‘…I thought I had exhausted what the countryside had to offer both as a “vocabulary” & as inspiration. I was sadly mistaken…’ (The Artist, letter of 17th March 1976, quoted in Sutherland in Wales, Alistair McAlpine, London 1976, p.6).
Not only the forms and the colours of the landscape, but the very atmosphere of the place appealed once more to Sutherland, and he explored the subject with fresh eyes but a rather different technique from his earlier paintings. The oils of the late 1930s and 1940s we often rather densely worked, but in works such as Trees on a River Bank the paint is often thinly applied, allowing the colours to bounce back off the white of the primed canvas and imbuing the whole with a glowing and poetic light. The twisted and intertwined shapes, here of tree roots exposed by the river’s erosion of their soil, form a complex web of space across the painting, bringing the density and depth of woodland right to us. Sutherland’s understanding of, and sympathy with, the internal life within these forms fills the painting with a deep sense of the natural world and its cycles. As these roots are worn away by the river, so they will be replaced by others, and ground to infinitesimal smallness, they will themselves add to some other organism, perhaps close, perhaps far away. Sutherland was always aware of the struggle within nature, of one element against another, and this sense of the inner complexities within the forms he observes, imagines and paints is what links his work so closely to the romantic past in British art.
Not only the forms and the colours of the landscape, but the very atmosphere of the place appealed once more to Sutherland, and he explored the subject with fresh eyes but a rather different technique from his earlier paintings. The oils of the late 1930s and 1940s we often rather densely worked, but in works such as Trees on a River Bank the paint is often thinly applied, allowing the colours to bounce back off the white of the primed canvas and imbuing the whole with a glowing and poetic light. The twisted and intertwined shapes, here of tree roots exposed by the river’s erosion of their soil, form a complex web of space across the painting, bringing the density and depth of woodland right to us. Sutherland’s understanding of, and sympathy with, the internal life within these forms fills the painting with a deep sense of the natural world and its cycles. As these roots are worn away by the river, so they will be replaced by others, and ground to infinitesimal smallness, they will themselves add to some other organism, perhaps close, perhaps far away. Sutherland was always aware of the struggle within nature, of one element against another, and this sense of the inner complexities within the forms he observes, imagines and paints is what links his work so closely to the romantic past in British art.