Edward Burra

The Artist;
Alex Reid & Lefevre Ltd, whence purchased by the present owner, September 1986

London, Redfern Gallery, Edward Burra, November - December 1942;
London, Lefevre Gallery, Edward Burra, The Early Years (1923-1950), 7 October – 30 October 1971, no.17;
London, Tate Gallery, Edward Burra, 23 May – 8 July 1973, no.70, illustrated in the catalogue, p.56;
London, Hayward Gallery, Edward Burra, 1 August – 29 September 1985, no.92, illustrated in the catalogue, pl. 18;
Mexico City, Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, Edward Burra, February - May 1987, illustrated in the catalogue.

William Chappell (ed.), Edward Burra: A painter remembered by his friends, Andre Deutsch, London, 1982, illustrated p35;
Andrew Causey, Edward Burra: The Complete Catalogue, Oxford, 1985, no.138, illustrated;
The Great Artists: Edward Burra, Marshall Cavendish 1995, illustrated p.2900;
Jane Stevenson, Edward Burra: Twentieth Century Eye, Jonathan Cape, London 2007, p.209.

The following condition report was prepared by the restorer Jane McAusland. Support This large drawing is on four overlapped sheets of thick, good quality, wove paper. These have been stuck down to a thick paper board. The sheets are lifting a little at the top where there is a wrinkle and on the left-hand side in the centre. The sheets are clean and unstained. There is a 3.5cm. tear towards the lower left; a 1.5cm. tear in the right edge in the blue and another smaller one. There are two scratches towards the lower left-hand edge, one approximately 4.5cm. long. The condition overall is very good considering the size of this work. Medium The medium appears to be bright and unfaded and again in a good condition. Where the paper has wrinkled as described above, the surface has rubbed off a little and there is some small surface losses at the top right and foot edges. An old frame has rubbed the edges a little with some small loss of pigment. Note: This work was viewed outside studio conditions. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Executed circa 1937 – 38, Beelzebub is one of the most distinctive works from Burra's exemplary series of paintings relating to the Spanish Civil War which he painted between 1936 – 1939.

Although he only visited Spain for the first time in 1933, Burra had long been interested by the country, its people and its artistic heritage.  He was fascinated by the Spanish Art he had experienced at first hand in public collections such as the Louvre and the National Gallery and was particularly intrigued by El Greco, Ribera, Zurbarán and above all, Goya.  In 1932, Burra and his great friend from Chelsea College of Art, Clover Pritchard, began teaching themselves Spanish and were soon reading all the greats of Spanish poetry including Luis de Góngora, Francisco de Quevedo and Frederica García Lorca.

Conrad Aiken shared Burra's love of Spain and it was with Aiken and Malcolm Lowry that Burra first visited the country in 1933, travelling south from Barcelona to Granada and Ronda, and finally over to Spanish Morocco, returning twice more in 1935 and 1936. He wrote to Paul Nash, 'I don't want to leave / Spain not till / I must' (Burra quoted in Stevenson, op.cit., p.190). He had arrived at a crucial time in Spain's history: in 1931 the Monarchy had been deposed, King Alfonso exiled and the Second Republic established. Beset on one side by the anarchist and socialist factions and on the other by the Fascist Falange, the doomed Republic lasted for five years amidst increasing unrest. Finally, in July 1936, a month after the end of Burra's last visit, Franco returned to Spain as the head of the Army of Africa in the coup d'etat that triggered the Civil War.

Burra never chose a side: loving Spain, he saw in the war only the death of the country that he had known. Partisanship was irrelevant for him, and the victims and aggressors of the Civil War series are unidentified and universal, and like the protagonists in his hero Goya's series, The Disasters of War, hopelessly entwined devouring each other (fig.1).  Burra avoided the war's documentary details, and in Beelzebub, the soldiers in the background brandish spears rather than modern day weapons and the monumental yet crumbling setting owes more to Renaissance Rome than to any contemporary source. The ruinous nature of the once elegant architecture is, however, particularly significant and Burra later recalled witnessing a burning church in Spain in 1936 and told John Rothenstein, 'that made me feel sick. It was terrifying: constant strikes, churches on fire, and pent up hatred everywhere: everyone knew that something appalling was just about to happen' (Burra quoted in Stevenson, op.cit., p.206).

As such, Burra's use of an impressive yet crumbling setting peopled with anonymous characters and dominated in the foreground by the most famous demon of legend, declares his horror at the stupidity of the century's first civilian war all the more cogently. The protagonist Beelzebub is not active in the battle but his glee at the havoc being wreaked is the real subject of the painting and one suspects that he may be directing the violence. Referred to by the Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke as 'Prince of Demons' and with many alternative titles including Ba'al Zebûb and Beelzebul, his casual satisfaction contrives to make him seem even more horrible than the slaughter he observes, adding a new level of discomfort to the depiction of war by suggesting more subtle and mysterious evils than the grim masks of the soldiers can convey. Most unsettling of all, Burra has depicted a distinctly human devil, marked out from the soldiers as much by demeanour as by physical difference. He seems to be laughing at the foibles of man and the mindless brutality of battle. Indeed, although stemming from his reaction to the Spanish Civil War, the ultimate power of the painting is Burra's more universal message on the violent extremes of human nature.

Despite the serious nature of the subject, the painting is not without a cynical humour. The hyper – masculine muscles of the figures add a certain extravagance, and as Brian Sewell comments, 'with a boyfriend in the ballet, Burra had an eye for buttocks and knew the value of gesture' (Sewell, From Jazz Maverick to Beelzebub, The Evening Standard, London, 23^rd February 2001).