Lot 82: Michael Andrews (British, 1928-1995) Sketch for A Man Who Suddenly Fell Over 35.6 x 50.8 cm. (14 x 20 in.)

Sketch for A Man Who Suddenly Fell Over
oil on canvas
35.6 x 50.8 cm. (14 x 20 in.)
painted circa 1952

PROVENANCE:
The artist
J.H. Hope
Private Collection, U.K.

LITERATURE:
Michael Andrews, exhibition catalogue, Arts Council of Great Britain,
Hayward Gallery, London, 1980, cat. no. 12

EXHIBITED:
London, Hayward Gallery, Michael Andrews, Arts Council of Great Britain,
31 October 1980 - 11 January 1981
Edinburgh, Fruitmarket Gallery, Michael Andrews, Arts Council of Great
Britain, 24 January - 21 February 1981
Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, Michael Andrews, Arts Council of Great
Britain, 6 March - 20 April 1981

The present work is a preparatory work for the 1952 painting in the collection of the Tate. A Man Who Suddenly Fell Over was painted while Andrews was a pupil at the Slade, where he studied under the hugely influential Sir William Coldstream. Alongside other luminaries of the post-war British Art scene, Freud, Bacon, Auerbach and Kossoff who formed the so-called ‘School of London’, Andrews’ primary interest in his early career was in the figurative. The painting encapsulates the existential philosophies of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Søren Kierkegaard that were hugely influential to Andrews at the time in his figurative work. In it, an old man is shown mid-fall, an instance that exposes his intense vulnerability. Andrews’ interest lies in the relationship between human beings and their surroundings, and this painting is considered to have been the first work he did that truly interested him.

This work will be included in James Hyman's forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of Michael Andrews.