Nude (1941)

Victor Pasmore

oil on canvas

Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives

Classification:

Painting

Materials:

Oil, Canvas

Physical Object Description:

Inscribed in red oil paint ‘VP.’ bottom right; colourman’s stamp on back of canvas: ‘No.5 | Prepared by | C. Roberson & Co. | PARKWAY | LONDON | NW’

A fragmentary label on the reverse of the frame is inscribed ‘[ ... ] GIRL | Oil o[ ... ]vas, 2[ ... ] x 1[ ... ] National Gallery, Memorial Exh[ ... ] | No.4; 1943-44, CEMA, No.7 | Lent by Sir Kenneth Clark, KCB’

Typed label: ‘Temple Newsam, Steer Exhibition [?1931 or 1951]’. This relates not to Nude but to Philip Wilson Steer’s Fish Girl, 1892, 24 x 19 inches also from Kenneth Clark’s collection, which was exhibited in the Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Philip Wilson Steer 1860-1942 at the National Gallery, June-Aug. 1943 (no.4) and, apparently, as Coster Girl in the subsequent CEMA tour of the exhibition (no.7).

Dimensions:

61 x 50.8 cm

Accession Number:

T00152

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1957

Scheme:

Historic Purchase by Purchaser (1914-2008)

Ownership history:

Purchased from the artist by Sir Kenneth Clark (1903-1983), October 1941; from whom purchased by Muirhead Bone (1876-1953) for the Contemporary Art Society, 1942 (invoice 15 March 1943); presented to the Tate Gallery, 1957

Relationship:

Muirhead Bone Kenneth MacKenzie Clark Tate, London, Liverpool and St Ives

Subject:

Nudes

Nude (1941) is of the Victor Pasmore's pregnant wife Wendy (née Blood), also an artist, while she was expecting their first child John (born 9 October 1941). It was painted at their studio 117 Ebury Street, London, despite it being damaged by a landmine in March of the same year. It was immediately purchased from the artist by Sir Kenneth Clark (1903-1983) in October 1941 and later presented through the Contemporary Art Society to the Tate Gallery in 1957.

Pasmore, a leading member of the Euston Road School, experimented with the styles and techniques of earlier artists like Rembrandt, Vermeer and Ingres. In Nude he also seems to be echoing the French Impressionists Degas and Renoir, employing a lack of finish and looking at the naked figure from behind.

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