Modern & Post-War British Art

Modern & Post-War British Art

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 119. DAVID BOMBERG | MOUNT SCOPUS AND GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

DAVID BOMBERG | MOUNT SCOPUS AND GOVERNMENT HOUSE

Auction Closed

November 20, 12:36 PM GMT

Estimate

70,000 - 100,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

DAVID BOMBERG

1890-1957

MOUNT SCOPUS AND GOVERNMENT HOUSE


oil on canvas

53.5 by 70.5cm.; 21 by 27¾in.

Executed in 1923.

The Leicester Galleries, London

Collection of Lt. Col. and Mrs. Robert Solomon

Acquired by Mr Margulies at the Ben Uri Gallery, 21st June 1968

His Estate sale, Sotheby's New York, 17th December 2013, lot 9, where acquired by the present owner

London, The Leicester Galleries, David Bomberg, Paintings of Palestine and Petra, February 1928 (where lent by Robert Solomon);

Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, David Bomberg in Palestine: 1923 -1927, 18th October 1983 - 18th January 1984, cat. no.16, illustrated p.35 (where lent by Mr Margulies);

London, Ben Uri Gallery, David Bomberg in the Holyland 1923-27, 30th January - 29th February 1984.

We are grateful to Richard Cork for his kind assistance with the cataloguing of the present work.


After serving in the trenches in World War I and achieving success as an Official War Artist, life beyond the war proved commercially and critically difficult for David Bomberg. Reeling from a negative reaction to a recent exhibition at the Mansard Gallery, in 1923 Bomberg and his wife travelled to Palestine on the offer of work from Leon Stein, Director of the Zionist Organisation in London. Bomberg's brief was to document the newly-formed Zionist pioneer camps. 


The sea-change in environment - from urban London to rural Palestine - was potent fuel for creativity and productivity. Bomberg later recalled that until he travelled to Jerusalem, he had 'never seen the sunlight before'. Though Bomberg was commissioned to paint the reconstruction of Jerusalem and the new farms in the surroundings, it was the unique topography and architecture of the ancient city that inspired him. He painted en plein air throughout the four years that he spent in the Middle East, in Jericho and Petra as well as Jerusalem, immersing himself in the landscape. 


A mountain that overlooked Jerusalem, Mount Scopus provided Bomberg with a vista to which he returned, most famously with Jerusalem, looking to Mount Scopus, two years after the present work in 1925, which is now in the collection of the Tate. Bomberg described Jerusalem as 'a Russian toy city, punctuated by its red roofs, jewelled with the gildings of the Mosque spire - set against hills - patterned with walls encircling the Christian holy places - the horizontal lines accentuated by the perpendicular forms [of] the minarets.' (David Bomberg, quoted in Richard Cork, David Bomberg, (exh. cat.), Tate, London, 17th February - 8th May 1988, p.91). The present work emphasises less the bustling ancient city and more the countryside environs, the rolling hills echoed by curving city walls. The soft palette is typical of Bomberg's work, capturing the heat and light of a Jerusalem summer. As Stephanie Rachum has commented this work signals the start of Bomberg's progression from very tightly realised scenes to looser, more expressive scenes - 'As early as 1923, in his paintings of Jerusalem by moonlight and in such works as Mount Scopus and Government House, one can already discern the beginning of a freer style. This freer style develops side by side with his almost photographic depictions and can be recognized in such works as The Monastary of St. George. [...] The period in Palestine had been one of transition; Bomberg’s search for a personal expression of essence had begun. The paintings stand as witness.' (Stephanie Rachum, “David Bomberg: Views from the Jewish-Zionist Side” in David Bomberg in Palestine 1923-1927, (exh. cat.) The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1983, p.24).