Lot 542: Humphrey Jennings (1907-1950)

Humphrey Jennings (1907-1950)
Sketch for Portrait of Edward Lear
signed with initials, inscribed and dated 'H.J. 1948 Sketch for portrait of/Edward Lear' (on the canvas overlap) and with studio stamp (on the canvas overlap)
oil on canvas
14 x 12 in. (35.5 x 30.5 cm.)

London, Mayor Gallery, Exhibition of Paintings and Works on Paper - Humphrey Jennings, November-December 1993.

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Jennings' studies for Edward Lear are remarkable in the way they show how vision, and creation, develop from figurativeness to a kind of "lyrical abstraction", from the contours of a figure to the revelation of its interior forces. They, again, demonstrate Jennings's process of de-realization of the real towards a kind of essence of the object under study.
We are very grateful to Michel Remy for his assistance in cataloguing the present lot as well as lots 640 and 644.
Michel Remy is the leading authority on British Surrealism. He is the author of Surrealism in Britain, published by Lund and Humphries, and Professor of English Literature and Art History at the University of Nice.