Hubert Dalwood, R.A.

Gifted by the Artist to James Tower, and thence by descent to the present owner

The work has recently benefited from light consolidation to two tiny areas of cracking to the back of the calves. This has been carried out by Plowden & Smith Conservation Ltd., London, and has been very sensitively executed. There is a further tiny spot of possible loss to the left knee, which appears stable. Elsewhere there is light grazing to the back of the left arm, and further light traces of surface matter and studio detritus to the piece. This excepting the work appears in good and stable overall condition. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"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."

Hubert Dalwood is an artist that despite the pivotal role he played in the British Art scene is today often overlooked within the broader context of the arts of the past century.  Born in Bristol in 1924, Dalwood studied under William Scott and Kenneth Armitage at the Bath Academy in Corsham, developing a unique sculptural approach influenced by both continental heavyweights from Degas, Rodin and Brancusi (whose studio he briefly visited in 1951), and leading British sculptors, most notably Henry Moore, who rose to international prominence following his inclusion in the 1948 Venice Biennale.  In the late 1940s Dalwood travelled down to St Ives, working briefly in the studios of Sven Berlin and Denis Mitchell, where he honed his advanced understanding of different sculptural techniques that he was to use throughout the course of his career.  Dalwood went on to hold prominent teaching positions, including at Leeds with Harry Thubron, and alongside influential figures including Patrick Heron, Terry Frost and Maurice de Sausmarez (see lot 197).  Often seen as a successor to the artists of the immediate Post-War age, in the group that Herbert Read labelled ‘the geometry of fear’, Dalwood submitted to the 1951 International Competition for a Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner, but was not selected for exhibition, however a decade later, in 1962, he won the David Bright Award at the 1962 Venice Biennale, where he was shown alongside Ceri Richards and Robert Adams.

Inspired by depictions of the human figure throughout the history of Western sculpture, Dalwood remained fascinated by the female body and the continuing theme of sexuality in art.  Following his introduction to the influential London gallery Gimpel Fils in the late 1940s (the gallery that was to give James Tower, the original owner of the work, his first major London showing) Dalwood’s first major exhibition at the gallery in 1954 was to centre predominantly around these figurative works, made in clay and cast uniquely in lead.  In this series of ‘patently fat women’ as Dalwood later described them, that the artist created from the early to late-1950s, Dalwood regarded the figure as a contemplative object, casting them in a range of different positions with often distorted proportions, specifically emphasising hips and breasts, seen by Dalwood as the very pinnacle of female sexuality.  As Chris Stephens writes ‘In their pose, surface quality and presentation of the body, these figures defy the established idealism of the nude’ (Chris Stephens, The Sculpture of Hubert Dalwood, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, London, 1999, p.32).