Lot 11
Sybil Andrews (1898-1992)
Lot 11 Details
Sybil Andrews (1898-1992), British/Canadian
IN FULL CRY, 1931 [SA, 13; WHITE, 13; LEAPER, 15]
Colour linocut printed in Chinese orange, spectrum red and Prussian blue on Japon laid paper; signed, titled and numbered 40/50 in pencil upper right.
Image 11.3 ins x 16.5 ins; 28.6 cms x 41.8 cms; Sheet 13 ins x 17.6 ins; 33 cms x 44.7 cms
Estimate $25,000-$35,000
Realised: $24,000
Price Includes Buyer's Premium
Additional Images
Provenance:
Acquired directly from the artist by the Mrs. Audrey Taylor, from the Art Gallery in London, ON where Andrews was having an exhibition, circa 1952 or 1953, one of 5 prints purchased from the artist;
By descent to the present Private Collection, Toronto
Literature:
A Detail of "In Full Cry" is illustrated in colour on the inside front cover of Hana Leaper's "Sybil Andrews Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue" with foreword by Gordon Samuel. In this revised edition, published in August 2015, "In Full Cry" (Leaper Cat. No. 15) is illustrated in colour on a full page and describes Andrews' linocut numbered 45/50 in the series.
Exhibited:
A print of this edition, on Japon paper, was exhibited at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in "Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints: Collectors' Collections," February 19, 2020–October 5, 2020.
Note:
The consignor's mother, Mrs. Audrey Taylor, also acquired "Speedway" (1934); "Football" (1937) and "Racing" (1934) at the same time she purchased this print directly from the artist. These three prints were all sold at Waddington's.
In this well inked equestrian-themed linocut, Sybil Andrews, the English-born, Grosvenor School printmaker and artist, transforms a familiar genre scene of equestrians on the hunt into a modernist study of motion. The artist removes all extraneous details—including the fox and hounds—drawing focus sharply towards the riders. During her career, Andrews made several linocuts depicting sporting themes, though her interest was less documentary than an enduring interest in capturing the thrill and exhilaration of these activities.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art which holds a print from this same edition in their permanent collection, notes that the composition exhibits the same “velocity and potential for danger” that she captures with motorbikes in Speedway. The Met cites the print’s “machinelike aesthetic,” which they link to the artist’s work as a welder in an airplane factory during World War I. That said, the arciform shapes seem to tend more towards the free-flowing than the Fordian. The reductionist equine forms echo the tessellated work of M.C. Escher in the way that the subjects mirror and nest into one another—one needs look no further than the tightly-strung hocks of the lead horse and the way in which they curve around the head of the palomino in the rear. Andrews’s vigorous lines so effortlessly draw the eye around the page in a never-ending loop, proving that in this instance, less is most certainly more.
After WWII, Sybil and her husband, Walter Morgan, left Britain and settled in Campbell River, British Columbia in 1947.