Sketchbook - 'Drawings of B.W. 1928-1930 and S.M.'s Hands'

Eric Gill (1882 - 1940)

Ashmolean Museum

1928 - 1930

Sketchbook containing 49 drawings on 38 numbered sheets, of which 29 nude studies depict Beatrice Ward (1900-1967), 6 of her hands and 1 of her feet, and 2 portraits; together with 4 finished drawings of Stanley Morison's (1889-1967) hands, 1 of Bruges and 6 slight sketches. Both sitters were close friends of Gill, Beatrice Wade later becoming one if his mistresses. Gill began to draw from the nude relatively late in life, for, as he wrote, 'drawing from life properly comes late in life rather than early for the training of the imagination is the first thing to be seen to and this is best achieved by life and experience'.

• Medium: pencil on paper
• Dimensions: 28.5 x 22cm
• Art Fund Grant: £25000 ( Total: £74,500; Tax Remission)
• ArtFunded in: 2003
• Vendor: Timothy Schroder

Provenance

Cambridge bookseller, 1950s; John Henry Schroder; his son, Timothy Schroder.

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