Untitled ('Female figures imprisoned')
Maker
(artist)
1885-1963
1885-1963
Title
Untitled ('Female figures imprisoned')
Date of Production
(circa) 1913 - 1914
Medium
black ink, watercolour and bodycolour on laid paper; some strokes of watercolour on the verso
Dimensions
Height: 15.8 cm
Width: 19.6 cm
Width: 19.6 cm
Accession Number
D.2016.XX.11
Mode of Acquisition
Brigid Peppin, gift, 2016
Credit
The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)
Copyright
© Estate of Helen Saunders
Location
Not currently on display
Keywords
Label Text
This small watercolour depicts seven figures with masklike faces enclosed within a confined space bounded by a heavy black line. The pressure the walls appear to exert on the figures, whose spindly bodies seem deformed by their close quarters, evokes a sense of claustrophobia.
The title ‘Female figures imprisoned’ is modern and not Saunders’s own. However, the subject matter, combined with her known sympathies with feminism and the women’s suffrage movement, make it likely that this is her most explicitly feminist surviving work.
The title ‘Female figures imprisoned’ is modern and not Saunders’s own. However, the subject matter, combined with her known sympathies with feminism and the women’s suffrage movement, make it likely that this is her most explicitly feminist surviving work.
Provenance
with the artist until her death in 1963; bequeathed to her sister, Ethel Saunders; bequeathed to her first cousin once removed, Helen Peppin, 1971; given to her daughter, Brigid Peppin, 1989; offered by her as a gift and part-purchase to the Samuel Courtauld Trust, 2016
Exhibition History
Praxitella: Wyndham Lewis, Helen Saunders and Iris Barry, Leeds Art Gallery, 22/06/2023-05/11/2023
Drawings Gallery Display - Helen Saunders, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/10/2022-29/01/2023
Radical Women: Jessica Dismorr and her Contemporaries, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 02/11/2019-23/02/2020 ...More
CORPUS: The Body Unbound, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 16/06/2017-16/07/2017
Helen Saunders (1885-1963), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 09/01/1996-03/03/1996; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, 16/03/1996-20/04/1996 ...Less
Drawings Gallery Display - Helen Saunders, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/10/2022-29/01/2023
Radical Women: Jessica Dismorr and her Contemporaries, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 02/11/2019-23/02/2020 ...More
CORPUS: The Body Unbound, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 16/06/2017-16/07/2017
Helen Saunders (1885-1963), Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 09/01/1996-03/03/1996; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, 16/03/1996-20/04/1996 ...Less
Literature
Radical Women: Jessica Dismorr and her Contemporaries by Alicia Foster, published by Lund Humphries, 2019, page 34., Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 2 Nov. 2019 - 23 Feb. 2020 London 2019
p. 34
Georgina Williams, Politics and Aesthetics of the Female Form, 1908-1918, Springer International Publishing AG 2018 - pp. 61-76
pp. 61-76
Peppin, Brigid, and Cork, Richard, Helen Saunders (1885-1963), exh. cat., Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Graves Art Gallery ,Sheffield, 1996
p. 11, 44
Fig. p. p. 35
p. 34
Georgina Williams, Politics and Aesthetics of the Female Form, 1908-1918, Springer International Publishing AG 2018 - pp. 61-76
pp. 61-76
Peppin, Brigid, and Cork, Richard, Helen Saunders (1885-1963), exh. cat., Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Graves Art Gallery ,Sheffield, 1996
p. 11, 44
Fig. p. p. 35
Inscriptions
Watermark: Watermark: none.
Inscription: Verso: upper left corner, graphite, circled: "1"; upper centre, graphite: an arrow pointing up; lower right, graphite: "51".
Collector's mark: none.
Inscription: Verso: upper left corner, graphite, circled: "1"; upper centre, graphite: an arrow pointing up; lower right, graphite: "51".
Collector's mark: none.
Information on this object may be incomplete and will be updated as research progresses. We are particularly committed to addressing any discriminatory or offensive language and ideas that might be present in our records. To help improve this record, and to enquire about images of The Courtauld Gallery Collection, please email gallery.collectionsonline@courtauld.ac.uk. Find out more about using and licensing our images.
____________________________
