David Bomberg

The sheet has not been laid down and it undulates slightly across the surface. There are a series of small creases along the top edge of the sheet, visible in the catalogue illustration. There are slight scattered areas of staining to the sheet, in particular a vertical line in the upper right quadrant which can also be seen in the catalogue illustration. A tiny abrasion in the upper left quadrant, approximately 1in. from the top edge is also visible. The gentle smudging of the medium is consistent with the artist's practice. The sheet is held in a cream mount which is stained and could be replaced. The mount is held in a simple wooden frame with dark green edges.
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The present drawing belongs to a group of studies for Bomberg’s major 1914 painting, The Mud Bath (Collection Tate), one of his most remarkable works of the period.

The Mud Bath was first exhibited at the Chenil Gallery in 1914, Bomberg taking the unusual step of hanging the painting outside the gallery, a clear statement of avant-garde intent, and one which definitely aroused the ire of reviewers. Indeed, Bomberg would later recall, perhaps with a touch of exaggeration, that the sight of it caused the horses drawing the no.29 bus to shy as they approached. What was clear though was that Bomberg had created an image of great complexity that almost a century later has lost none of its power. Drawn loosely from recollections of Schevzik’s Vapour Baths in Whitechapel, the process of abstracting the image is clearly documented through the series of drawings and gouache studies. The simplification of the figures into schematised forms appears to have been established very early in the process, and the major components of the image are consistently present in virtually all of the studies. However, Bomberg did make changes to the emphasis and weighting of the composition, and the present drawing therefore seems to fit closest in the process with the Study for The Mud Bath (Coll. Israel Museum, Jerusalem). The whole image gives an impression of movement, activity and above all, depth, that looks forward to Bomberg’s next multi-figure compositions, such as Sappers at Work (Coll. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa).