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Spring Curated
1st Session

May 06 - May 27, 2021

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The bidding history list updated on: Thursday, March 28, 2024 03:59:48

LOT 201

CPE
1898 - 1992
Canadian

Pas Seul (Sculls)
linocut in 3 colours, 1930
signed and editioned 6/50 and on verso titled Pas Seul on the Redfern Gallery label
7 7/8 x 8 3/4 in, 19.9 x 22.1 cm

Estimate: $30,000 - $50,000 CAD

Preview at:

PROVENANCE
Redfern Gallery, London, June 28, 1930
Acquired from the above by A.K. Lee Esq. on July 23, 1930
Piano Nobile, London
Acquired from the above by an Important Private Collection, British Columbia

LITERATURE
Michael Parkin and Denise Hooker, Sybil Andrews, Parkin Gallery, 1980, listed, unpaginated
Peter White, Sybil Andrews, Glenbow Museum, 1982, reproduced page 52
Stephen Coppel, Linocuts of the Machine Age, 1995, reproduced page 109, catalogue #SA 12
Hana Leaper, Sybil Andrews Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue, 2015, page 59, reproduced page 59

EXHIBITED
Redfern Gallery, London, 1930, titled as Pas Seul, catalogue #58
Parkin Gallery, London, Sybil Andrews, October 25 - November 15, 1980, same image, catalogue #27
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Sybil Andrews, September 14 - October 22, 1982, same image, catalogue #12


Pas Seul (Sculls) is a very rare print, and is seldom offered through auction. In 1947, Sybil Andrews and her husband Walter immigrated to Canada from England, boarding the steamship the Royal Mail S.S. Loch Ryan on June 26. When they disembarked in Victoria on Vancouver Island, and Andrews opened up the case with the prints and linocut blocks she had brought with her, she discovered that her blocks for Theatre, Straphangers, Hyde Park and Pas Seul (Sculls) had melted in the heat in the ship’s hold. Stephen Coppel wrote that with this print, “only impressions numbered 1/50 to 20/50 were made before the blocks partially melted.” Thus this work is a very rare offering and a unique opportunity for the Sybil Andrews collector.

In her catalogue raisonné of Andrews’s work, Hana Leaper comments that “the slightly cryptic title ‘Sculls’ clearly refers to the sport of rowing, but ‘pas seul’ translates directly from French as ‘not alone.’ This print may have been inspired, along with Cyril Power’s The Eight (1930) by the motion of rowers Power and Andrews observed from Hammersmith Bridge. Andrews’ melding of shapes, suggestive of human forms and waves, conveys an impression of unity in teamwork.”

Andrews was part of the Grosvenor School of linocut printmakers in London, who were interested in the speed and movement of modern urban life. They were influenced by the Italian Futurists, who depicted a world in flux, created by the new machine age. Andrews's own dynamic style of design is further influenced by the London-based modernist movement of Vorticism from the early 20th century.

Coppel also notes that impressions were done on buff oriental laid tissue, and some are titled in the image either Pas Seul or Sculls.

Please note: this work is unframed.


All prices are in Canadian Dollars


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