Woman with a Birdcage (1946)

Robert Colquhoun

oil on canvas

Bradford District Museums & Galleries (Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford and Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley)

Classification:

Painting

Materials:

Oil, Canvas

Physical Object Description:

Cubist painting of woman with a birdcage. Inscribed: tr

Dimensions:

101.5 x 74 cm

Accession Number:

1948-001

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1948

Scheme:

Historic Purchase by Purchaser (1914-2008)

Ownership history:

Purchased from Alex Reid & Lefevre Ltd (The Lefevre Gallery) by Sir Colin Anderson (1904-1980) for the Contemporary Art Society, February 1946; presented to Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford, 1948

Relationship:

Sir Colin Skelton Anderson Alex. Reid & Lefevre, Ltd (The Lefevre Gallery), London Bradford District Museums & Galleries (Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford and Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley)

Subject:

Portraits, Birds, Cubism, Neo-romanticism, Woman

Woman with a Birdcage (1946) by the Neo-Romantic artist Robert Colquhoun was purchased by Sir Colin Anderson (1904-1980) for the Contemporary Art Society from the artist’s solo exhibition at Alex Reid & Lefevre Ltd (The Lefevre Gallery) in February 1946 whilst Anderson was the CAS elected buyer that year. It was presented by the CAS to Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, Bradford in 1948. It is similar in style to The Fortune Teller (1946) painted by Colquhoun slightly later in the same year which was purchased by Anderson himself and gifted by him and his wife to the Contemporary Art Society 30 years later and presented to the Tate Gallery in 1976. It execution owes much to his mentor the Polish artist, Jankel Adler (1895-1949) and according to some may be a discreet portrait of himself or his fellow Scottish painter and life-long partner Robert McBryde (1913-1966) with whom he lived at 77 Bedford Gardens in London during this time.

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