Edward Burra

Acquired from Freddie Mayor in the 1930s
Private Collection

London, Lefevre Gallery, Edward Burra, 11th May - 17th June 2005, cat. no.8, illustrated;
London, Tate, Edward Burra (a selection of Harlem pictures), January - May 2008;
Chichester, Pallant House Gallery, Edward Burra, 22nd October 2011 - 19th February 2012, un-numbered exhibition, illustrated fig.55.

Simon Martin et al., Edward Burra, Lund Humphries in association with Pallant House Gallery, Farnham, 2011, p.59, illustrated fig.55.

The following condition report has been kindly prepared by Jane McAusland FIIC, Conservator and Restorer of Art on Paper, Nether Hall Barn, Old Newton, Nr. Stowmarket, Suffolk, IP14 4PP. Support: The artist has used a large sheet of wove paper showing no deckle edge for this lively gouache with watercolour. At present it is hinged into a mount and overlaid at the edges. The condition of the sheet is good with no damage. Medium: The medium is bright and unfaded. There is a slight loss to the pigment which appears in tiny scattered white spots. I have come across this before and it seems quite a common occurrence and the surface may have just dried out a little over the years. There is some re-touching in places and on the green skirt and a little cracking to the gummed areas. A[part from these small flaws the picture is overall in a good condition. Note: This work was viewed outside studio conditions. Housed in a thick, ornate black and painted wooden frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

‘New York would drive you into a fit…
[it] is like a Berwick Street that’s burst all bounds
everything here is more so’
(Edward Burra, letter to Barbara Ker Seymer, October 1933, in William Chappell (ed.), Well dearie! The Letters of Edward Burra, Gordon Fraser, London, 1985, p.84-85.)

Teeming with dynamism, vitality, and excitement, The Savoy Ballroom, Harlem, was painted by Burra after his first visit to America in October 1933. He travelled with the painter Sophie Fedorovitch and the photographer Olivia Wyndham, and while there he lodged in Harlem with actress Edna Thomas. The cultural diversity he found in Harlem was to have an important effect on his work, and Wyndham, who was particularly well ingrained in the Harlem community, proved to be an invaluable resource for Burra, introducing him to all the amusements of the neighbourhood. Burra was already a keen observer of the urban environment in Europe and was greatly interested in black culture, rooted in his early love of jazz and in his admiration for the black dancers he saw in London in the 1920s. Consequently, the young artist was blown over by the night life, music, and characters he found in a community that was still in the throes of the Harlem Renaissance.

Burra painted a number of scenes of Harlem, including Strip Tease (fig.1., sold in these rooms, 13^th December 2007, lot 61, for the then world record price of £490,900), and Harlem (1934, Tate Collection, London). However, it is clear from the wonderfully detailed present work that in the raucous environment of the Savoy he found a real outlet for all of his passions. As he wrote to his close friend Barbara Ker Seymer: ‘We went to the Savoy dance Hall the other night you would go mad I’ve never in my life seen such a display… I’ve never seen such wonderful dancing’ (letter October 1933, in William Chappell (ed.), Well dearie! The Letters of Edward Burra, Gordon Fraser, London, 1985, p.84).

The Savoy Ballroom opened on the 12^th March 1926, occupying an entire city block in central Harlem, from 140th and 141st Streets on Lenox Avenue. It was one of the first racially integrated public places in the United States, and its plush lounges, pink interiors, mirrored walls, large sprung wooden dance floors, and dual bandstands, attracted up to 5,000 patrons a night. It was an enclave for rising gifted and passionate black dancers, some of whom were scouted for the ballet and Broadway, and innumerable dance styles originated and were made famous at the venue including: the Flying Charleston, Jive, Rhumboogie and Lindy Hop (apparently named after Charles Lindbergh's solo trans-Atlantic flight in 1927).

Clothes, hairstyles and mannerisms were always features that Burra noted closely and this outstanding painting is filled with Burra’s typical eye for detail. The wide dance floor and busy seating area offers a wonderful range of studies. The viewer is immediately confronted by the face of a stylish woman in a bejewelled hat, so close to us in vicinity that she becomes our seating partner, positioned across from us at one of the small cocktail tables. Her observations of the dancers on the floor encourage the viewer to do the same, and we are immediately drawn into the lively scene: we see patrons sipping on cocktails and smoking in the foreground, couples twirling - their legs a whir on the dance floor, and the energetic band being directed in the background. The clientele are finely attired, and Burra portrays a range of skin tones, each figure individualized, the depictions never lapsing into caricature. Considering it was produced at a time when racial tension (particularly in the US) was still rife, the work is in many ways progressive, and echoes the paintings being produced by African American artists during the Harlem Renaissance. In its originality and eccentricity it is truly a British artist’s unique take on an important moment in American history.