Lot 282: Edward John Gregory, R.A. (1850-1909)

Reclining nude signed, and inscribed and dated 'Mr Signolo [?]/E J Gregory/E 90 [?]' (lower right) black and white chalk on buff paper 111/2 x 221/4 in. (29.3 x 56.5 cm.) PROVENANCE with The Maas Gallery, London. with J.X. Reynolds, New York, from whom acquired by the present owner in 1979. NOTES Gregory trained at the Royal Academy Schools and made his name with illustrations for The Graphic . His paintings of modern life were much admired both at the Grosvenor Gallery and at the Royal Academy. His posthumous sale at Christie's, June 1905 contained 106 works, about a third of his output, and included his masterpiece Boulter's Lock: Sunday Afternoon, a celebration of the Thames boating craze. Frederick Wedmore in the Magazine of Art remarks on Gregory's 'curious sensitiveness to unconsidered beauties of line', which is much in evidence in the present study.