Mother and child with elephant (1)
Maker
(artist)
1885-1963
1885-1963
Title
Mother and child with elephant (1)
Date of Production
(circa) 1914 - 1922
Medium
graphite, pen and brown ink and brown wash on wove paper, laid down
Dimensions
Height: 44.5 cm
Width: 28.7 cm
Width: 28.7 cm
Accession Number
D.2016.XX.14
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 drawing is one of two closely related studies of the same models; the other study, D.2016.XX.15, is also in The Courtauld's collection. The treatment of the figures in both drawings explores the tension between naturalism and an impulse to simplify and abstract.
It is uncertain when Saunders made this drawing. The wooden elephant the mother holds probably came from a toy factory established in 1914, but her dress and hairstyle appear to be of the late 1910s. If the drawing dates from Saunders’s Vorticist period (1914-15) it demonstrates that even at her most radical, she never entirely abandoned figuration. If the drawing was made later, it may foreshadow the path her work took after the First World War.
It is uncertain when Saunders made this drawing. The wooden elephant the mother holds probably came from a toy factory established in 1914, but her dress and hairstyle appear to be of the late 1910s. If the drawing dates from Saunders’s Vorticist period (1914-15) it demonstrates that even at her most radical, she never entirely abandoned figuration. If the drawing was made later, it may foreshadow the path her work took after the First World War.
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
Drawings Gallery Display - Helen Saunders, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/10/2022-29/01/2023
Literature
Peppin, Brigid, and Cork, Richard, Helen Saunders (1885-1963), exh. cat., Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and Graves Art Gallery ,Sheffield, 1996
pp. 15, 48
Fig. p. p. 15
pp. 15, 48
Fig. p. p. 15
Inscriptions
Watermark: Watermark: none.
Inscription: none.
Collector's mark: none.
Inscription: none.
Collector's mark: none.
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