Victor Pasmore RA, Self-portrait, oil on prepared panel c1940.
Victor Pasmore CH CBE (1908-1998) Self-portrait, oil on prepared panel, framed and signed with initials below right. Dimensions:
Self-portraits of Pasmore are rare.
Condition: the paint is very thin and this and previous poor storage prior to our buying the picture, has seen some loss of the paint layer, however the paint layer has now been stabilised and overall the picture is in a good condition.
Victor Pasmore has a unique place in the history of twentieth century British art; he was one of the most talented figurative painters of his generation; he also became a leading practitioner and theorist of abstract art.
In 1937, Pasmore, together with fellow artists William Coldstream and Claude Rogers, opened a School of Drawing and Painting in Fitzroy Street, which then moved to 316 Euston Road and was known as the Euston Road School. The artists involved shared a desire to promote traditional subject matter depicted in a realistic manner in reaction to avant-garde art. The pupils at the school were taught to paint directly from the model and inspiration was drawn from artists including Sickert, Degas and Bonnard.
The intensity of introspective focus of the figure’s gaze shows Pasmore looking into a mirror (outside of the composition) to paint his self-portrait. Although the Euston Road School had closed in 1939, with the onset of the war, Pasmore continued to paint in the tradition of the school in his works of the 1940s. The colours of this painting are typical of this period of Pasmore's output. Alan Bowness comments on this period: 'Lightly painted, soft and delicate in colour, these pictures have a quietness, an inner stillness that contrasts most strongly with the events of the outside world.’ (see A. Bowness and L. Lambertini, op. cit., p. 10).
Victor Pasmore CH CBE (1908-1998) Self-portrait, oil on prepared panel, framed and signed with initials below right. Dimensions:
Self-portraits of Pasmore are rare.
Condition: the paint is very thin and this and previous poor storage prior to our buying the picture, has seen some loss of the paint layer, however the paint layer has now been stabilised and overall the picture is in a good condition.
Victor Pasmore has a unique place in the history of twentieth century British art; he was one of the most talented figurative painters of his generation; he also became a leading practitioner and theorist of abstract art.
In 1937, Pasmore, together with fellow artists William Coldstream and Claude Rogers, opened a School of Drawing and Painting in Fitzroy Street, which then moved to 316 Euston Road and was known as the Euston Road School. The artists involved shared a desire to promote traditional subject matter depicted in a realistic manner in reaction to avant-garde art. The pupils at the school were taught to paint directly from the model and inspiration was drawn from artists including Sickert, Degas and Bonnard.
The intensity of introspective focus of the figure’s gaze shows Pasmore looking into a mirror (outside of the composition) to paint his self-portrait. Although the Euston Road School had closed in 1939, with the onset of the war, Pasmore continued to paint in the tradition of the school in his works of the 1940s. The colours of this painting are typical of this period of Pasmore's output. Alan Bowness comments on this period: 'Lightly painted, soft and delicate in colour, these pictures have a quietness, an inner stillness that contrasts most strongly with the events of the outside world.’ (see A. Bowness and L. Lambertini, op. cit., p. 10).
Victor Pasmore CH CBE (1908-1998) Self-portrait, oil on prepared panel, framed and signed with initials below right. Dimensions:
Self-portraits of Pasmore are rare.
Condition: the paint is very thin and this and previous poor storage prior to our buying the picture, has seen some loss of the paint layer, however the paint layer has now been stabilised and overall the picture is in a good condition.
Victor Pasmore has a unique place in the history of twentieth century British art; he was one of the most talented figurative painters of his generation; he also became a leading practitioner and theorist of abstract art.
In 1937, Pasmore, together with fellow artists William Coldstream and Claude Rogers, opened a School of Drawing and Painting in Fitzroy Street, which then moved to 316 Euston Road and was known as the Euston Road School. The artists involved shared a desire to promote traditional subject matter depicted in a realistic manner in reaction to avant-garde art. The pupils at the school were taught to paint directly from the model and inspiration was drawn from artists including Sickert, Degas and Bonnard.
The intensity of introspective focus of the figure’s gaze shows Pasmore looking into a mirror (outside of the composition) to paint his self-portrait. Although the Euston Road School had closed in 1939, with the onset of the war, Pasmore continued to paint in the tradition of the school in his works of the 1940s. The colours of this painting are typical of this period of Pasmore's output. Alan Bowness comments on this period: 'Lightly painted, soft and delicate in colour, these pictures have a quietness, an inner stillness that contrasts most strongly with the events of the outside world.’ (see A. Bowness and L. Lambertini, op. cit., p. 10).