Lot 28: AR Walter Ritchie (British, 1919-1997) The Sower 44.5 x 30 x 3.7cm (17 1/2 x 11 13/16 x 1 7/16in).

Walter Ritchie (British, 1919-1997)
The Sower signed and dated 'W RITCHIE 38' (lower right)stone with paint44.5 x 30 x 3.7cm (17 1/2 x 11 13/16 x 1 7/16in).We are grateful to Sally Taylor for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

ProvenanceGifted by the Artist to John Lloyd, and thence by descentPrivate Collection, U.K.Walter Ritchie was introduced to sculpture while studying at Coventry School of Art by Victor Candey, the then Vice-Principle, and the medium became a life-long passion for the Artist. Initially creating works which were modelled and cast, he went on to discover direct carving, which became his favoured technique. Taught the basic elements by local masons, he then went on to Hornton Quarries in North Oxfordshire to continue his training. First visiting the Pigotts workshop of Eric Gill in Buckinghamshire age 18, Ritchie went on to become one of Gill's pupils from 1938-9, later writing of the experience: 'his technical skill was a revelation...I could not have wished for a finer or more generous master' (Walter Ritchie, Sculpture in Brick and Other Materials, Cheney & Sons Ltd, Banbury, 1978, p.8). During his time with Gill, Ritchie also met Donald Potter, a former assistant of Gill's who had his own sculpture workshop nearby and who taught Ritchie much about the techniques of carving wood. Alongside working in these traditional materials, Ritchie went on to undertake a number of public commissions – the most famous of these being a sculpture of Len Hutton at the Oval cricket ground – a great many of which were sculpted in brick, allowing him to realise his vision of the art work and building being as one. The two works offered here, the first of Ritchie's sculptures ever to come to auction, are masterful examples of his skill in carving. Ritchie would first create preparatory sketches before drawing directly onto the stone or wood, a process which, unique to direct carving in being without preliminary maquettes or models, allows the medium itself to suggest the final form each sculpture assumes. Here, the choice of Kauri pine for Lovers and stone (thought to be Hopton Wood stone) for The Sower lends each a distinct quality innate to the material. The muscular, labouring figure of the sower is echoed in the unyielding nature of the stone, whilst the more sensual embrace of the lovers is perfectly suited to the softer pine, allowing an exquisite fluidity of line and expression.