European & British Art
European & British Art
Property from a Scottish Private Collection
Sir Gerald Festus Kelly, P.R.A., R.H.A.
The Sphinx
Lot Closed
December 15, 05:40 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 20,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Scottish Private Collection
Sir Gerald Festus Kelly, P.R.A., R.H.A.
British
1879 - 1972
The Sphinx
signed Kelly lower right and numbered 245 twice and inscribed with measurements on the reverse of the frame
oil on canvas
Unframed: 76.7 by 64.2cm., 30¼ by 25¼in.
Framed: 91.5 by 79cm., 37 by 31in.
Sale: Christie's, London, The Contents of the Studio of the Late Sir Gerald Kelly, 8 February 1980, lot 161
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 2 March 1988, lot 219
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 2 March 1988, lot 219
Dublin, Royal Hibernian Academy, 1961, no. 38 (as Small Sphinx)
Southport, Atkinson Art Gallery, 1962
Southport, Atkinson Art Gallery, 1962
Another, larger version of The Sphinx was exhibited at the Royal Academy exhibition of Kelly's work in 1957 (59 by 49in., lent by Mrs Alfred G. Kay, USA). This was apparently the version painted between 1926 and 1930 and submitted to the Academy Summer Exhibition of 1930 but 'Withdrawn at the request of the President and Council' (1957 catalogue, p. 4). The present version remained in the artist's collection until sold in the sale of the contents of his studio in 1980.
The powerful pose and confident expression of the model probably inspired the title of the painting but perhaps also her fashionable bobbed hairstyle which imitates the Egyptian style. It is a very direct and very modern depiction of womanhood and although the title suggests a tongue-in-cheek nod to mythology, the viewer is in no doubt that this is a girl of the late 1920s posed amid the clutter of an artist's studio - including a statue of a sphinx in the background. The rejection of the painting by the Hanging Committee of the Royal Academy exhibition of 1930 perhaps reflects the fact that Victorian prudish opinions still lingered. Interestingly seventeen years later Kelly painted another model, known only as D.D. in a very similar pose and setting. It was accepted as one of Kelly's exhibits at the Academy that year (alongside a portrait of a Bishop, a bank manager and a Baronet) and purchased by Newport Art Gallery in South Wales. When it was put on public view it caused a storm of controversy among the locals, 20,000 of whom queued up to see how shocking it was, condemned by the Bishop of Caerleon and removed from view for over sixty years.
The powerful pose and confident expression of the model probably inspired the title of the painting but perhaps also her fashionable bobbed hairstyle which imitates the Egyptian style. It is a very direct and very modern depiction of womanhood and although the title suggests a tongue-in-cheek nod to mythology, the viewer is in no doubt that this is a girl of the late 1920s posed amid the clutter of an artist's studio - including a statue of a sphinx in the background. The rejection of the painting by the Hanging Committee of the Royal Academy exhibition of 1930 perhaps reflects the fact that Victorian prudish opinions still lingered. Interestingly seventeen years later Kelly painted another model, known only as D.D. in a very similar pose and setting. It was accepted as one of Kelly's exhibits at the Academy that year (alongside a portrait of a Bishop, a bank manager and a Baronet) and purchased by Newport Art Gallery in South Wales. When it was put on public view it caused a storm of controversy among the locals, 20,000 of whom queued up to see how shocking it was, condemned by the Bishop of Caerleon and removed from view for over sixty years.