Lot 153: EDWARD WADSWORTH, A.R.A. (1889-1949) - Les Plats du Jour

EDWARD WADSWORTH, A.R.A. (1889-1949)
Les Plats du Jour
signed and dated 'WADSWORTH 1938' (lower left)
tempera on gesso and canvas prepared panel
20 7/8 x 15 in. (53 x 38 cm.)
Painted circa February 1938.


PROVENANCE:
with City Art Gallery, Wakefeld.
Anonymous sale, Bonhams, London, 3 December 2002, lot 71.
with Rowley Gallery, London.
with Osborne Samuel, London, where purchased by Jeremy Lancaster in 2007.
EXHIBITED:
London, Arthur Tooth & Sons, An Exhibition of Tempera Paintings by Edward
Wadsworth, April - May 1938, no. 14.
London, Rowley Gallery, no. 33, catalogue not traced.
LITERATURE:
B. Wadsworth, Edward Wadsworth: A Painter's Life, Salisbury, 1989, no. W/A
197.
J. Black, Edward Wadsworth, Form, Feeling and Calculation, The Complete
Paintings and Drawings, London, 2005, p. 196, no. 366, illustrated.
The sea was a point of consistency in Wadsworth’s oeuvre, with marine
objects becoming important motifs throughout his career. This interest
began in 1918, when he worked on ‘dazzle-camoufage’ for ships in Bristol
and Liverpool, later manifesting itself in his art in the 1920s when he began
working on a series of tempera harbour scenes and still-life paintings, and
in 1936 Wadsworth was commissioned to paint two works for the frst and
cabin class Smoke Rooms for the new liner, Queen Mary.
In the 1930s, Wadsworth painted a series of still-lifes taking real life nautical
instruments and marine subjects and combining them in unexpected ways
to create unusual compositionally confgured works. Wadsworth had a
collection of maritime equipment and other ephemera, which he would
arrange in his studio to paint from, later inserting imaginary seascapes into
the backgrounds, as seen in the present work.
Les Plats du Jour and other works of this period in particular show
Wadsworth’s knowledge and enthusiasm for European art trends, most
notably Surrealism. He had close associations with Pierre Roy, Jean
Metzinger and in particular Giorgio de Chirico, whom he greatly admired, and
corresponded with in 1928 on the subject of tempera painting. He would also
no doubt have seen his one-man exhibition in October - November 1928 at
Arthur Tooth & Sons, who by this time was representing Wadsworth. Like his
Surrealist compatriots, Wadsworth laid particular emphasis on the isolation
and aggrandisement of the object, paying great attention to the contrasting
relative weights, textures and forms of his motifs. He also enjoyed playing
with perspective and the sense of spatial distance, often depicting still-life
objects at close range granting them with a Surrealist quality, making them
seem larger than they really are.