European & British Art
European & British Art
Sir Gerald Festus Kelly, P.R.A., R.H.A.
Study for The Incantation Ma Seyn Me: pose X
Lot Closed
July 14, 01:55 PM GMT
Estimate
7,000 - 10,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Sir Gerald Festus Kelly, P.R.A., R.H.A.
British
1879 - 1972
Study for The Incantation Ma Seyn Me: pose X
inscribed B.f.60(a) on the reverse; inscribed Ma Seyn Me: pose X on the stretcher; indistinctly numbered and inscribed ½ 21 13 Study for The Incantation Ma Seyn Mé Pose X. B.f. 60a on the right overlap; indistinctly numbered and inscribed ½ 2 13 Study The Incantation B.f.60a on the upper overlap
oil on canvas
Unframed: 55.5 by 33.5cm., 21¾ by 13¼in.
Framed: 73.5 by 51.5cm., 29 by 20¼in.
Maurice Bradshaw, General Secretary of Mall Galleries; thence by descent to his granddaughter
The present picture relates to Burmese Dancer No 3 - Incantation (Bonhams, London, 29 May 2013, lot 24). Here the model is identified as Ma Seyn Me, an actress and classical dancer who became one of Kelly's favourite models in Mandalay. He wrote 'Of course i did not speak a word of Burmese, but I had an interpreter and Ma Seyn Me was so gay and full of zestful life that we had very lively sittings. I used to go, rather a gate-crasher, to any dance where she was performing.' (D. Hudson, For the Love of Painting - The Life of Sir Gerald Kelly, K.C.V.O., P.R.A. 1975, p. 32) Another painting of Ma Seyn Me is in the collection of the Royal Academy and said to date to circa 1909 but she clearly inspired his work for many years and a painting entitled Ma Seyn Me XIV is dated 1951 (Sotheby's, New York, 24 February 1988, lot 156).
Following a disastrous love affair, Kelly went to Burma in 1908, and was captivated by the country, its people, and particularly the beautiful dancers who inspired a series of paintings which are similar in their exoticism as Gauguin's pictures painted in Tahiti. He had met Gauguin in Paris, along with Sargent, Monet, Degas, Sickert, Renoir, Gauguin and Cezanne. Although Kelly's early style was influenced by Sargent and Gauguin, the pictures he painted in Mandalay are remarkably personal and insightful. Kelly's friend, Somerset Maugham remarked that 'his Burmese dancers.... have a strange impenetrability. Their gestures are enigmatic and very significant. They are charming, and there is something curiously erratic in their manner; with a sure instinct, and with a more definite feeling for decoration, than is possible in a portrait, Mr Kelly has given us the character of the East as we of our generation see it'.
Following a disastrous love affair, Kelly went to Burma in 1908, and was captivated by the country, its people, and particularly the beautiful dancers who inspired a series of paintings which are similar in their exoticism as Gauguin's pictures painted in Tahiti. He had met Gauguin in Paris, along with Sargent, Monet, Degas, Sickert, Renoir, Gauguin and Cezanne. Although Kelly's early style was influenced by Sargent and Gauguin, the pictures he painted in Mandalay are remarkably personal and insightful. Kelly's friend, Somerset Maugham remarked that 'his Burmese dancers.... have a strange impenetrability. Their gestures are enigmatic and very significant. They are charming, and there is something curiously erratic in their manner; with a sure instinct, and with a more definite feeling for decoration, than is possible in a portrait, Mr Kelly has given us the character of the East as we of our generation see it'.