Lot 113: Walter Ernest Webster (1878-1959)

Walter Ernest Webster (1878-1959)
The Play is Ended
signed 'Webster' (lower right), and signed again and inscribed 'The Play is Ended/W.E. Webster/Broom Villa/Broomhouse Rd./Parsons Green/£127/SW6' (on a label on the reverse)
oil on canvas
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm.)

Liverpool, 52nd Autumn Exhibition, 1924.

H. Stanley Smith, Lyndhurst, Hampshire, by 6 December 1973.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
The Play is Ended closely relates to Webster's Souvenir of Schumann's 'Carnival' (The Leverhulme Collection, Sotheby's, London, 27 June 2001, lot 459) a homage to the German composer's musical description of masked revelers. In both pictures the seated ballerina is most probably a representation of Clara Weick, the composer's future wife, while the reticent Pierrot represents the dreamier and more contemplative side of Schumann's personality.