20th Century British Art

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Lot 25
  • 25

Philip Wilson Steer 1860-1942

Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Philip Wilson Steer
  • The Pillow Fight
  • signed
  • oil on canvas
  • 62 by 77.5cm.; 24 1/2 by 30 1/2 in.

Provenance

Sir C. K. Butler
G.J. Scaramanga
Arthur Tooth & Son, London
Joseph Sutherland

Exhibited

London, Barbizon House, 1937 (as 'Frolic').


 

Literature

D.S. MacColl, Life, Work and Setting of Philip Wilson Steer, Faber and Faber, London, 1945, pp. 108 and 101, illustrated 37a;
Bruce Laughton, Philip Wilson Steer, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1971, no.185, pp.70-1, 75, 137, illustrated plate 118.

Catalogue Note

Painted in 1896. The artist's great friend and biographer, D.S. MacColl recounted how he had sent Steer a reproduction of Fragonard’s La Culbute as 'an incentive' (op.cit.) and which he believed to be the inspiration for The Pillow Fight. Certainly the subject and setting of this work is unusual for Steer and would suggest the influence of Fragonard's amorous themes. McColl regretted, that  Steer, 'cautious husbander of his energies that he was, never repeated the freedom of his promising romp' (op.cit.).