Percy Wyndham Lewis
(Canada, England 1882–1957)
- Title
- Figure composition (Man and woman with two bulldogs)
- Other titles:
- Figure composition (with bulldogs)
- Year
- 1912-1913
- Media category
- Watercolour
- Materials used
- pen and ink, watercolour, gouache
- Dimensions
-
31.3 x 21.7cm sheet; 63.6 x 52.0 x 3.2cm frame
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1983
- Accession number
- 226.1983
- Copyright
- © Estate of Mrs G A Wyndham Lewis
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
The eclectic sensibility of Percy Wyndham Lewis equipped him perfectly for his role as the gadfly of the English avant-garde. It was the avowed mission of this painter, writer, publisher and propagandist to radicalise society through art, to 'blow away dead ideas and worn out notions'. Lewis's explosive rhetoric was often only that, but he managed to found the most important British response to European modernism in a movement he named vorticism. Launched with his 1914 periodical 'Blast', vorticism synthesised the cubist and futurist techniques Lewis had been experimenting with previously. This image from 1912 is already precociously vorticist. The essential steeliness of the style is clear. Jagged lines, sharp angles and metallic colours - an overall effect of shattering - comprise its outward features. The transformation of the figures occasioned by this treatment is brutalising and mechanistic. Lewis was none too gentle in his appraisal of human worth. Here, the bulldogs demonstrate more character than their owners.
Art Gallery Handbook, 1999.
- Provenance (6)
-
Anthony d'Offay Gallery (England), pre 23 Sep 1983, London/England, Purchased by the AGNSW from Anthony d'Offay Gallery 1983. Purchased from the exhibition 'Wyndham Lewis Drawings and Watercolours 1910-1920', 13 April - 14 May 1983.
Christie's London (England), 06 Nov 1981, London/England, cat.no. 71, Modern British and Irish Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture £9000/$16900
Christie's London (England), 13 Jun 1980, London/England, cat.no. 105 [not sold]
Michael Tachmindji, circa 1956-circa 1974, United Kingdom, Tate catalogue [1956] as lent by Michael Tachmindji. Arts Council catalogue [1974] as lent by Michael Tachmindji.
The Redfern Gallery (England, estab. 1923), 1949, London/England
Sir Michael Sadler (England, b.1861, d.1943), pre 1943?, Oxford/England, d'Offay catalogue as Sadleir
- Bibliography (14)
-
Ted Gott (Australia) (Author), Laurie Benson (Australia) (Author), Sophie Matthiesson (Australia) (Author), Modern Britain 1900-1960, Melbourne, 2007, 68 (colour illus.).
Terence Maloon (Australia) (Editor), Peter Raissis (Australia) (Editor), Michelangelo to Matisse: Drawing the figure, Domain, 1999, 109 (colour illus.). cat.no. 57
Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, Domain, 1999, 89 (colour illus.).
Donald Williams (Australia) (Author), Barbara Wilson (Australia) (Author), From Caves to Canvas: An Introduction to Western Art (Second edition), Sydney, 1998, 225 (colour illus.), 256.
Renée Free (Australia) (Author), Modernism 1900-1950 - Prints and Drawings from the Collection, Sydney, 1994. no catalogue numbers
Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections, Sydney, 1994, 146 (colour illus.).
Donald Williams (Australia) (Author), Barbara Wilson (Australia) (Author), From Caves to Canvas: An Introduction to Western Art, Sydney, 1992, 229 (colour illus.).
Annabel Davie (Editor), Art Gallery of New South Wales Handbook, Domain, 1988, 56 (illus.).
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874) (Author), Five years on: a selection of acquisitions 1981-1986, Sydney, 1986, (illus.). cat.no. 139
'European Acquisitions: 1972-83' by Renee Free pg. 63-67, Art and Australia (Vol. 22, No. 1) Spring 1984, Spring 1984, cover (colour illus.), 66.
Anthony d'Offay Gallery (England) (Author), Wyndham Lewis Drawings and Watercolours 1910-1920, United Kingdom, 1983, (colour illus.). cat.no. 14
Richard Cork (England) (Author), Vorticism and its allies, London, 1974, 36. cat.no. 21
Walter Michel (United Kingdom) (Author), Wyndham Lewis Paintings and Drawings, London, 1971, (illus.). cat.no. 62, plate 21
Tate Britain (England) (Author), Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism, London, 1956, 14. cat.no. 29
- Exhibition history (8)
-
Wyndham Lewis, The Redfern Gallery, 05 May 1949–26 May 1949.
Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism, Tate Britain, 06 Jul 1956–19 Aug 1956.
Vorticism and its Allies, Hayward Gallery, 27 Mar 1974–02 Jun 1974.
Wyndham Lewis Drawings and Watercolours 1910-1920, Anthony d'Offay Gallery, 13 Apr 1983–14 May 1983.
Five years on: a selection of acquisitions 1981-1986, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 26 Sep 1986–23 Nov 1986.
Modernism 1900-1950 - Prints and Drawings from the Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 23 Jul 1994–25 Sep 1994.
Michelangelo to Matisse: Drawing the figure, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 20 Nov 1999–27 Feb 2000.
Modern Britain 1900-1960, NGV: International, 15 Nov 2007–24 Feb 2008.
