Henri Gaudier-Brzeska

The Estate of the Artist
The Estate of Sophie Brzeska
H.S. Ede
Acquired from the above by the parents of the present owner, circa 1958

London, Arts Council of Great Britain, Henri-Gaudier Brzeska, An Exhibition of Sculpture, Pastels and Drawings, 1956, cat. no.43, where lent by H.S. Ede (as Man and Horse);
Paris, Centre Pompidou, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska dans les Collections du Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, 24th June - 14th September 2009, un-numbered, illustrated p.118, with tour to Musée des Beaux-arts d'Orléans, Orléans, where lent by the present owner.

The following condition report has be prepared by Jane McAusland FIIC, Conservator and Restorer of Art on Paper, Nether Hall Barn, Old Newton, Nr. Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 4PP. Support: The artist has used a sheet of laid INGRES type paper to support this watercolour drawing. Where the artist has pinned the drawing up there are holes indicating this with an associated tear upper right; there is also pin damage, lower left at the foot edge where the area has been neatly restored with a small repair, where the paper has been pulled away from the drawing pin. There are three soft horizontal creases, on the right-hand side, indicating that the drawing has been rolled at some stage. Medium: The sharp red on the edge of the sheet demonstrates the pigments used by the artist were fugitive. This red would have covered the area around the horse's head and rump at the foot and also on the left-hand side. In my opinion there is probably fading to other pigments as well. This work by Gaudier-Brzeska is a strong image and although it is sad that it has lost tonality, the condition of the paper is strong and in a good condition. Note: This work was viewed outside studio conditions. Housed behind Perspex with a thin light-wood frame and set within a cream card mount. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Henri Gaudier began to draw early in his life and had a natural talent to produce accurate representational drawings. He was fascinated by the world around him and studied and recorded many different aspects of his home village in France, his family and different animals  By the age of sixteen he was a highly accomplished draughtsman as exemplified by his study of Tiger (1907) and of Golden Eagle (1908). But, dissatisfied with the product of his undoubted skills he quickly developed a new approach to drawing, interpreting the world around him with an apparently fast moving and fluid line in ink or crayon. He was stimulated by subjects which were moving such as animals, and this required him to abstract the essence of the subject in the moment.

In Cardiff and subsequently in London he drew animals and people going about their daily work and searched out people riding on horseback in Hyde Park and animals in London Zoo.

The Hyde Park studies of men on horseback are in a ‘sinewy’ drawing style in contrast to the ‘compact’ studies of carthorses working in the city streets (see lots 192-194).  All this drawing was as preparatory exercises for what was to follow and anticipated his first Vorticist studies where he progressively transformed observations of horses into abstract designs.

This drawing therefore comes at a time when Gaudier’s confidence in interpreting his subjects was at its highest. But that is not all, there was progression even within the study itself. This is established by the number of other studies, now in different collections, which preceded it: This drawing celebrates the culmination of all that work.

The first study is executed in the thin black ink lines typical of earlier horse studies but then Gaudier overworks the drawing with heavy black ink which emphasizes the strength of the shape and form of the horse in contrast to the male figure. There are also other studies where the thinly drawn outline of the horse and figure is filled in with a wash of brown watercolour, in another with a thin black ink wash and another with heavy black ink. In these studies Gaudier is exploring the mass of the two figures in a sculptural way. In all of these drawings the male figure has foreshortened legs and an extended torso with strongly shaped arms which in turn are gripping the nostrils of the horse in one hand and the rump in the other, as if ready to mount it.

As the design developed towards this final study the angularity of the shapes were accentuated and the horse heavily worked in crosshatched charcoal that accentuates its size and strength in contrast to the male figure. Other characteristics are accentuated and become an integral design feature in their own right such as the front legs, neck and lower jaw of the horse. The outstanding success of the whole study is founded on the juxtaposition of the final arrangement of the geometric shapes which emerge through simplification and refinement.

Gaudier was simultaneously exploring drawing techniques in other studies, for example, Man and Child which used the black ink wash technique and Woman with a Dog which explored the simplification of shape and form with strong black crayon line emphasized with cross hatching. Whilst none of these drawings were translated into sculpture many of the characteristics they explore can be found in sculptures such as Red Stone Dancer (Tate, London), Caritas (Musée des Beaux Arts, Orléans) and Seated Woman (Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris).  As with most of the other sculptural ideas Gaudier was developing at this time, the lack of  having a suitable piece of stone to hand was probably the only reason why Homme et Cheval was not translated into stone.

On the death of Henri Gaudier in 1915 his entire estate became the property of Sophie Brzeska. She died intestate in 1925 and her entire possessions were handed to the Treasury Solicitor. Subsequently the estate was transferred to the National Gallery where it was valued for the state by the acknowledged art critic R.H. Wilenski. With the exception of one or two sculptures only, the whole estate was purchased by H.S.Ede.

Ede, known as Jim Ede, moved from London and purchased a house named Kettle's Yard in Cambridge where he set up a permanent exhibition of a selection of Gaudier's work. The remainder of the work was stored in a small locked top floor room from which selected drawings and sculptures were made available for purchase to discerning friends and collectors.

Roger Cole