LYNN CHADWICK, R.A. | Sitting Woman II

Hokin Gallery, Palm Beach, where acquired by the present owners in 1991

Caracas, Galería Freites, May 1988, illustrated (another cast), (details untraced).

Dennis Farr and Eva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick Sculptor, With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue 1947-2003, Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2014, cat. no.C63, illustrated p.374 (another cast).

The sculpture appears sound. The sculpture has recently been cleaned and re-waxed. There are a few small scuffs to the back of the base to the left and to the underside and tips of the woman's feet. There are a few small casting imperfections, including to the back of the woman to the bottom left, to the back of her upper torso to the right and to her proper right torso, with a few possible more minor instances elsewhere. There are a few flecks of oxidisation to the head and a slight inconsistency to the patina in the same area. There is casting residue to creviced areas and some light rubbing to corners and edges. This excepting, the work is in very good overall condition. The work is freestanding. 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."

We are grateful to The Estate of Lynn Chadwick for their kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work. That this wonderfully poised sculpture should come from an important American collection will come as no surprise. Chadwick’s work, more than that of any of his contemporaries from the bright, young generation of British sculptors who forced themselves on the world’s consciousness at the 1952 Venice Biennale, can be found in private collections across the globe, from Australia to South America, the United States to Europe. Because of this, his work has almost the same level of recognition as that of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth and like them his profile amongst international collectors rests more on his work from mid-career.  In Chadwick’s case, this is from the 1970s through to the 1990s, which were ironically those years when his friends and contemporaries who had shown with him in Venice in 1952, such as Kenneth Armitage (see lots 172, 173), found things more difficult.

Seated Figure was created in the very middle of this fertile period for Chadwick and displays all of the clarity and refinement of his work of the 1970s onwards, as the spikiness of the 50s and tough block-like shapes of the 60s gives way to smoother, finer forms, with sweeping lines and delicate geometric shapes and angled planes. Yet for all their sharp lines, Chadwick’s works of this period are infused with a softness and flow, especially in his female figures, whose billowing robes and delicate feet and hands stand in contrast to the boxy, bullish forms of his men.

This is perfectly expressed in the present work, in which the visual flow starts at the very point of the head, fans out to the points of the shoulders, then cuts back in (and out) to the tips of the breasts. At this point, everything has run in straight lines, but Chadwick then beautifully uses the natural break in the body to introduce slight curves, as the figure’s clothes stretch around the belly, curves that then continue into the pleats of the skirt. The strong, straight line then resumes in the legs and feet, the right leg picking up the line of the breast and the angle of the feet mirroring the incline of the head. This is Chadwick at his best: a sculptor who effortlessly combines strength with subtlety, rigour with poetry. 

For an artist such as Chadwick, whose work always has an architectural quality (his sculptures are mostly constructed through building an armature of welded rods, before being filled in and given sculptural weight with lime-plaster mix), the seat element of a seated figure is always going to present an opportunity for further artistic intervention. Here, the step form gives the work a lightness (to emphasise the delicacy of the feet) but also pulls the eye back to the same plane of the face, creating balance. The width of the seat is also perfectly judged too, giving a sense of an overall triangle, which both grounds the work and gives it an understated elegance.