Lot 149: Albert Victor Ormsby Wood (1904-1977) Faun and

Albert Victor Ormsby Wood (1904-1977) Faun and Nymph Watercolour, 29 x 65cm (11.5 x 25.5") Signed with monogram Victor Wood (1904-1977) was a reclusive figure artist who specialised in somewhat fantastical paintings of women, particularly maids, typically set in Edwardian times. Although there is a mild undercurrent of eroticism evident in much of his work, it was only after his death that his notebooks and sketchbooks revealed the mind of an eroticist and voyeur, so much so that an exhibition of his work in the Michael Parkin Gallery, London in 1992 was called 'A Voyeur in Art'. His father was Albert E. Wood, KC, patron and friend of Harry Clarke (1889-1931) the stained glass artist, an imposing, jovial man, remembered by Harry Clarke's son, the artist David Clarke (1920-2005), from whose estate these paintings come, for his booming laughter which filled their house when he was a boy. In a nostalgic letter to David in 1969, Wood wrote of how much he missed his father and Harry Clarke, 'the two brightest stars in my life'." In his twenties, before moving permanently to England, Wood worked for a short while at the Harry Clarke stained glass studios, an experience which left an indelible impression on him. More than fifty years on, he claimed never to draw a line of paint without hearing Harry Clarke's voice say in his ear 'make it miraculous, as though the hand of man had never touched it'. It was through the influence of another patron and friend of Harry Clarke's, Dr. Thomas Bodkin (1887-1961), director of the National Gallery 1927-35, that Wood began to paint in egg tempera.