Edward Burra

pencil and wash on paper

Sotheby's, London, Works from the Estate of Edward Burra, 3 July 2007, lot 303

Andrew Causey, Edward Burra, A Complete Catalogue, Oxford, 1985, no.330, illustrated.

The sheet is fully laid down to a backing card, with deckled edges in places. There are pin holes in the top corners. There are very minor traces of light studio detritus. There is a minor trace of time staining apparent to the centre of the left hand edge of the sheet and to the extreme bottom edge, only visible upon close inspection, and not visible when the work is framed. This excepting the work appears in excellent overall condition. Housed behind glass in a gilt wooden frame.
"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 later life, Burra turned more and more towards still-life and landscape, creating some of the most beautiful and serene works of his career as he moved away from the culture of man towards the magnificence of nature. 

This distilled limpid image, quite different to his complex almost cluttered compositions full of figures, is unique yet still monumental. The subject of the work is Lunaria Annua, otherwise known as Annual Honesty. Before the days of sophisticated dried flowers, Honesty was particularly popular at Christmas and New Year and, after it had been arranged, would often stay in its vase for months. The plants most distinguishing feature was its unique seed-heads, oval and translucent, which here gleam with an eerie silver light, revealing the seeds within. That Burra presents them with an air of the sinister is unsuprising, having a particular fascination with the macabre, most powerfully felt in the dark creations of his earlier career inspired by the Spanish civil war. David Sylvester, writing in the New Statesman, suggested that Burra’s floral works had their own ability to evoke disquietude: 'perhaps the most pungent things Burra has ever given us, because they are more subtle pictorially than the subject pictures’. 

Never imitative, Honesty strongly contrasts traditional bouquet paintings in the Dutch tradition, and with its significantly simplified, semi-abstract quality is also quite distinct from botanical illustrations; instead what has been created within the present work is something unmistakeably ‘Burraesque’.