David Bomberg (1890-1957)

lot/david bomberg 1890 1957 wGQca22 631836710 / For sale

lot/david bomberg 1890 1957 wGQca22 631836710

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lot/david bomberg 1890 1957 wGQca22 631836710

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David Bomberg (1890-1957)

David Bomberg (1890-1957), Self Portrait, David Bomberg (1890-1957) Self Portrait Signed and dated (19)31, charcoal, 56cm by 38cm Exhibited: Tennants Auctioneers, Leyburn, "Light and Shadow", 2017, no.16 Provenance: The collection of Humphrey Boyle, founder of Zoffany Mr Boyle was part of a team brought in to restore Temple Newsam, a 16th century Jacobean estate on the outskirts of Leeds. During this time, he was drawn to the wonderful historical fragments of wallcoverings and woven silks, which he began to document and restore. He drew inspiration from the pieces, forming an archive that became the foundation of Zoffany's first wallpaper collection. "Light and Shadow" Also an avid art collector, he has acquired many pieces over the years, including those by John Nash, David Bomberg, Austin Wright, David Hockney, Norman Adams, Audrey Johnston, amongst others. David Bomberg (1890-1957) Born in Birmingham, the eleventh child of a Polish Jewish leatherworker, David Bomberg and his family moved to Whitechapel in London in 1895. He studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts and with Walter Sickert at Westminster School of Art from 1908-1910. The emphasis Sickert placed on the study of form played an important early influence on Bomberg in addition to his sighting of Roger Fry's 1910 exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists, the first show of its kind in Britain. In 1911, he managed to secure funding from John Singer Sargent and the Jewish Education Aid Society in order to take up a position at the Slade School of Art where he won several awards. David Bomberg (1890-1957) In 1912, Fry held a second Post-Impressionist exhibition introducing Cubist and Futurist works, which had an immediate effect on Bomberg and the development of his style. In 1913 he was expelled from the Slade for his audacious rebellion from the teaching of the time. He went on to design for Roger Fry's Omega workshops and travelled to Paris, where he met Picasso, Derain and Modigliani. 1914 saw the pinnacle of his career with a solo exhibition at the Chenil Gallery in Chelsea, the show was visited by Duchamp, Brancusi and Marinetti. He also exhibited in the Vorticist exhibition in 1915, the New English Art Club, the Friday Club, and was a founding member of the London Group. The outbreak of World War I and financial hardship caused him to enlist with the Royal Engineers. The reality of his faith-shattering experiences on the Western Front caused him to abandon his mechanistic style for expressive naturalism, paint and colour. This self-portrait from 1931 is a juxtaposition of light and shadow, depicting an elevated Bomberg looking down on the viewer with a knowing anti-elitist stance. The 1930s were a difficult time for the artist, who was striving to find his footing in the art world. He created a series of self-portraits, all in front of a large mirror and reminiscent of Rembrandt's sequence of self-searching portraits. Stubborn and non-conformist by repute, and having experienced anti-Semitism, he struggled to find patronage. While his rebellious nature had been in his favour earlier in his career, the later years saw him turn more to portraiture and landscape painting with a period of teaching from 1945 to 1953 at Borough Polytechnic, where his pupils included Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff.

Estimate:£7,000

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