Christopher Wood

Christopher Wood (1901-1930) Two women dated '1926' (on the reverse) chalk 9½ x 8 in. (24.1 x 20.3 cm.) with Mercury Gallery, London, where acquired by the present owner. Picasso's encouragement on seeing Wood's work in 1926 was, unsurprisingly, hugely motivational. Wood wrote to his mother 'Curiously enough it has given me enormous self confidence, the fact of his having seen them, and I feel much better disposed toward the future...Picasso is charming to me...' (R. Ingleby, Christopher Wood, An English Painter, London, 1995, pp. 122-123) Towards the end of 1926 Wood turned his attentions to England. He met Ben and Winifred Nicholson, whose dedication to his work would also prove a great influence. The same year he became a member of both the London Group and the Seven and Five Society.

Christopher Wood (1901-1930) Factories by the Seine with inscription 'Painted by my son Christopher Wood./Clara D. Wood.' (on the reverse) oil on board 14¾ x 17 7/8 in. (37.5 x 45 cm.) Painted in 1924. with Redfern Gallery, London. Sir Geoffrey Crowther, June 1964. Anonymous sale; Christie's, South Kensington, 22 July 1981, lot 105. Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 30 March 1983, lot 153. E. Newton, Christopher Wood, London, 1938, no. 62. In March 1921, at the invitation of the influential collector and patron, Alphonse Kahn, Wood moved to Paris and settled in Kahn's house at 41 Bois de Boulogne. Soon after his arrival Wood enrolled at the Académie Julian and the Grande Chaumière atelier, then at the Académie Montparnasse. Kahn also helped Wood to acquire a studio in the rue des Saints Pères, which runs adjacent to the left bank of the Seine. From 1924, Wood began sharing this studio with the French artist and poet Jean Cocteau. Wood completed several paintings which show bridges over the River Seine but, stylistically, they are all quite different. Eric Newton, in the wider context of Wood's ouevre, suggests that this constant series of new twists to his artistic vision would not have been possible had he not been to Paris: 'He painted swiftly and without hesitation, as though he had merely to obey the commands of his inner eye ... that is not typical of the English artist's way of thinking. If Wood had not lived a cosmopolitan existence, with Paris as his headquarters, I doubt whether he would have achieved that confident grip of his craft as early as he did. The series of decisions and accidents that cut him off from England and threw him into the cross-currents of continental life set his art free' (see E. Newton, Christopher Wood, London, 1959, p. 18).

Christopher Wood (1901-1930) Cornish Fisherman in a Cap oil on canvas laid on board 10 x 17½ in. (25.4 x 44.5 cm.) Painted in 1928-30. Sir James Dunnett. Purchased by the present owner at the 1985 exhibition. Please note that the correct medium for the present work is oil on paper laid on board, and not as stated in the cataogue. PROPERTY FROM THE PETER LANGAN COLLECTION E. Newton, Christopher Wood, London, 1938, p. 74, no. 398. Exhibition catalogue, Spring 1985, London, Fine Art Society, 1985, no. 38, illustrated. H. Gresty, exhibition catalogue, Christopher Wood: The Last Years, 1928-1930, Penzance, Newlyn Art Gallery, 1989, pp. 9, 17-19, no. 23, illustrated: this exhibition travelled to Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, December 1989 - January 1990; Swansea, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, January - March 1990; and Cambridge, Kettle's Yard, March - April 1990. London, New Burlington Galleries, Christopher Wood: Exhibition of Complete Works, March - April 1938, no. 224. London, Fine Art Society, Spring 1985, April - May 1985, no. 38. Penzance, Newlyn Art Gallery, Christopher Wood: The Last Years, 1928-1930, October - November 1989, no. 23: this exhibition travelled to Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, December 1989 - January 1990; Swansea, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, January - March 1990; and Cambridge, Kettle's Yard, March - April 1990. Christopher Wood spent the summer of 1928 in Paris, before visiting Cornwall to stay with his close friends the artists Ben and Winifred Nicholson. They were holidaying at Pill Creek near Feock, when the trio took a day-trip to St Ives where they encountered the seaman turned painter, Alfred Wallis. The discovery of this primitive genius had a profound effect on the art of all three: as Winifred Nicholson recalled, 'One only finds the influences one was looking for and I was certainly looking for that one'. After the Nicholsons' return to London, Wood stayed on until the winter, moving to a cottage on Porthmeor Beach. From here he wrote enthusiastically to Winifred of the Cornish fishermen, 'they look like pirates with big jack boots up to their thighs and skin hats with wings to them like Mercury' (see H. Gresty, loc. cit.).

Christopher Wood (1901-1930) Mother and Child oil on canvas, unframed 21½ x 18 1/8 in. (54.6 x 46 cm.) Painted in 1924. The artist, and by descent to the artist's sister Elizabeth Dalziel-Smith (née Wood), from whom purchased by the present owner, circa 1978. E. Newton, Christopher Wood, London, 1938, p. 73, no. 30. This relatively early work by Christopher Wood was painted in 1924, when he was living and working in Paris. In Mother and Child Wood demonstrates the influence of both the Fauves artists, Henri Matisse and André Derain, and the pointillist style of Seurat, upon his work. In the present painting Wood has observed the complimentary juxtaposition of the blue and orange pigments to enliven the composition, and this is indicative of his instinctive understanding of colour and harmony.

Christopher Wood (1901-1930) Roses in a Jar oil on board 13½ x 10½ in. (34 x 26.5 cm.) Painted in 1925. with Redfern Gallery, London. Acquired by Alison Auld before 1938, and by descent. PROPERTY FROM THE AULD FAMILY E. Newton, Christopher Wood, London, 1938, p. 66, no. 123. London, Redfern Gallery, Christopher Wood Exhibiton of Complete Works, March - April 1938, no. 25. Roses in a Jar was painted in 1925, when Christopher Wood was living in Paris - indeed the present work is painted on a French board. That year Wood's friends Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau introduced him to Serge Diaghilev, the impressario and founder of the Ballets Russes, and in the following year Diaghilev commissioned Wood to design the sets for a production of Romeo and Juliet, conducted by Wood's friend Constant Lambert. In 1924, Wood showed his first pictures at Heal's in London. He travelled widely with Gandarillas in 1925, to Marseilles, Monte Carlo, Rome and London. As early as 1925, his biographer Eric Newton wrote, 'he had painted pictures that could have been painted by no one else'. In 1925 Wood had a studio in Montmartre, and his still lifes of the time show the impact of the French and European painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In Roses in a Jar the heavy outline of the vase and the shape of the vase on the table top closely echo those in van Gogh's Sunflowers, 1889 (private collection). Wood's energetic and gestural brushstrokes also demonstrate the impression van Gogh's painting had made on him at this time. The palette, however, is soft and melodious, in contrast with the more acidic yellows of Sunflowers, and the delicate pink, brown and green hues of the entire composition combine to vividly evoke the flowers. Wood was fond of flowers as a subject, and his paintings of 1925 are the first to reveal his incredible understanding of colour and harmony. By 1925, Wood had already been mentioned in several fashion magazines as a 'bright young person'. The work he produced in 1925 and early 1926 became the subject of his first major exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in London, which he shared with Paul Nash. He was to meet and impress Ben and Winifred Nicholson for the first time in 1926, and they became lifelong friends. We are very grateful to Dr William Mason for his assistance in preparing the catalogue entries for lots 4 and 24.