Edward Burra

Alex. Reid & Lefevre Ltd, London
Acquired by a Private Collection, London, circa 1996

London, Arts Council, Hayward Gallery, Edward Burra, 1st August - 29th September 1985, cat. no.88, illustrated;
London, Lefevre Gallery, An Exhibition of Works by Edward Burra (1905-1976), 4th November - 18th December 1987, cat. no.9, illustrated.

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 This watercolour with gouache and gum is on a sheet of wove paper and not laid down. There are some undulations and handling creases to the sheet and a small crease across the woman. A horizontal fold runs right across the watercolour in the lower section of the paper. The edges are covered by a slip, so I was not able to view these, but I could determine that the drawing is not attached to the slip and just probably hinged at the top to a backing board. Medium The colours are extremely bright with no fading. There are some tiny losses mainly on the outlines of the figures in places and on the fold. A little rubbing shows lower right and near this a crease on the left. Otherwise the condition is good. Note: This work was viewed outside studio conditions. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Executed circa 1935, The Torturers is one of Burra's earliest paintings inspired by the conflicts in Spain that eventually resulted in a brutal civil war which raged from 1936-1939. This exemplary series of works includes such masterpieces as Beelzebub (fig.1, 1937-38, sold in these rooms, 15 July 2008, lot 54) and War in the Sun (1938, sold in these rooms, 13 May 1992, lot 49). The Torturers is very likely an earlier version of another painting of the same title (1935, Private Collection, see Andrew Causey, Edward Burra: Complete Catalogue, Phaidon Press, Oxford, 1985, cat. no.126 and The Hayward Gallery, op. cit.,cat. no.87 and 88), in which the elements of brutality are more apparent, the figures standing in front of spiked wheels, speckled with red blood and holding gothic weapons of torment.

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 Jane Stevenson, Edward Burra: Twentieth-Century Eye, Pimlico, London, 2008, 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. Burra avoided the war's documentary details, and in The Torturers, the monumental setting owes more to Renaissance Rome than to any contemporary source. We peer out from the darkness of the vaulted arches into a hot sunlit square, across which we see en-robed ghost like figures gazing back at us from a double storied arcade. The soldiers brandish a cane and whip rather than modern day weapons. Looming over the rest of the scene, they are imposing both in their size and stature, nude apart from quite antiquated headwear, their musculature particularly well defined.

Despite the serious nature of the subject, the painting is not without Burra’s quirky details and cynical humour. Two beggars crouch in the corner, one reclining rather leisurely on his side, his face not visible, the other easily mistaken for a pile of rags if not for the beady eyes peering out from the darkness. A blanket is spread before them with a guitar case open to collect any offerings from generous passers-by; it goes unnoticed by the glamorous woman who strolls along. She seems at odds with the rest of the scene, appearing as if from one of Burra’s favourite films of the day. These elements of the surreal and theatrical are typical of Burra’s signature style, and bring an additional element of humanity to the scene. While inspired by the events in Spain, the anonymity of the characters and space alludes to universal themes of human nature.