Sir Matthew Smith, CBE (British, 1879 – 1959)
Still life with sculpture
oil on board
21.1/4 x 23.3/4 in. (54 x 60.3 cm.)
Provenance: Removed with the contents of his Aix studio, by Marion Monay, tfor the aertistin early 1940, to Beauchene, the nearby house of fellow artist Harry Morton Colvile (1905-1992) Given by the artist toColvile in January 1946 along with otherstudio effects.
Given by Colvile’s only child, Professor Georgiana Colvile (1943-2018) to the present owner circa 2000
Literature:
Alice Keene, ‘The Two Mr Smiths, The Life and Works of Matthew Smith’, 1995, pp.61,65,70 & 128
When in early 1940 Smith went back to Aix to pack up and close his studio there and send back to London all the paintings possible, the residue was hidden (see Literature, Keene 1995, p.61,65 &70) in various locations around Aix by Marion Monay, a good deal at Beauchene the house of his and her friend Harry Colvile who had been Monay’s lover prior to Smith (see Literature, Keene 1995, p.59) In 1946 with the war over, Smith went to Aix to retrieve all he could manage to ship back to England but what he had to leave at Beauchene he give to Colvile, including the clay female nude (see Lot 22, Cheffins sale 7th February 2019) which appears in numerous of his mid to late 1930’s Aix period still lifes. The present work dates from this same time, and the upright female figure is another of the various clay figures which Smith is known to have created as ‘props’ for use in his paintings. On the reverse of the board is an outline sketch copy of the three figures in a painting Smith owned from the studio of Ingres of ‘Charity’ and which he had acquired before 1940 from Alden Brooks the author, who bought Smith’s work as early as 1912 and with whom Smith travelled extensively in the 1930’s in France (see Literature, Keene, 1995, p. 87, no.128 and adjacent photos for a more finished copy by Smith, now in the Corporation of London Collection).
Sir Matthew Smith, CBE (British, 1879 – 1959)
Still life with sculpture
oil on board
21.1/4 x 23.3/4 in. (54 x 60.3 cm.)
Provenance: Removed with the contents of his Aix studio, by Marion Monay, tfor the aertistin early 1940, to Beauchene, the nearby house of fellow artist Harry Morton Colvile (1905-1992) Given by the artist toColvile in January 1946 along with otherstudio effects.
Given by Colvile’s only child, Professor Georgiana Colvile (1943-2018) to the present owner circa 2000
Literature:
Alice Keene, ‘The Two Mr Smiths, The Life and Works of Matthew Smith’, 1995, pp.61,65,70 & 128
When in early 1940 Smith went back to Aix to pack up and close his studio there and send back to London all the paintings possible, the residue was hidden (see Literature, Keene 1995, p.61,65 &70) in various locations around Aix by Marion Monay, a good deal at Beauchene the house of his and her friend Harry Colvile who had been Monay’s lover prior to Smith (see Literature, Keene 1995, p.59) In 1946 with the war over, Smith went to Aix to retrieve all he could manage to ship back to England but what he had to leave at Beauchene he give to Colvile, including the clay female nude (see Lot 22, Cheffins sale 7th February 2019) which appears in numerous of his mid to late 1930’s Aix period still lifes. The present work dates from this same time, and the upright female figure is another of the various clay figures which Smith is known to have created as ‘props’ for use in his paintings. On the reverse of the board is an outline sketch copy of the three figures in a painting Smith owned from the studio of Ingres of ‘Charity’ and which he had acquired before 1940 from Alden Brooks the author, who bought Smith’s work as early as 1912 and with whom Smith travelled extensively in the 1930’s in France (see Literature, Keene, 1995, p. 87, no.128 and adjacent photos for a more finished copy by Smith, now in the Corporation of London Collection).
