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Sir Claude Francis Barry R.B.A.(1883-1970)Fires of Victory, Moscow 9 May 1945 137 x 171.5 cm. (54 x 67 1/2 in.)
£40,000 - £60,000
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Find your local specialistSir Claude Francis Barry R.B.A. (1883-1970)
signed (lower right), also signed, titled and dated (on the canvas overlap)
oil on canvas
137 x 171.5 cm. (54 x 67 1/2 in.)
Footnotes
Literature:
Katie Campbell, Moon Behind Clouds, An Introduction to the life and work of Sir Claude Francis Barry, Fine Art Promotions Ltd., Jersey, 1999, p.34 (ill.col.)
Until recently, Sir Claude Francis Barry was not a widely known name at auction. This is possibly because he came from a wealthy, aristocratic family and sold few of his works during his lifetime, leaving a prodigious body of work in his studio when he died. Barry was educated at Harrow and, against the wishes of his family, followed his inclinations as a painter from the moment he left school. He studied in Newlyn - then a burgeoning centre of painting - and from the age of 23 exhibited at the Royal Academy and later at the Royal Society of British Artists and the Saloon des Artists Français. Indeed, his style was in some ways more aligned to French than to English painting.
Barry was a pacifist; he had spent World War I as an agricultural labourer and at the outbreak of World War II he reluctantly returned from years of living and travelling in France, Italy and Germany to settle in St Ives. There he studied for a time with Stanhope Forbes, and he would have come into contact with other artists working there at the time - among whom Laura and Harold Knight, Augustus John and Alfred East.
Despite his being a pacifist, the subject of war clearly inspired some of his best work. He experimented with different styles, most obviously the French Pointillist style of separating colours into spots and using them in conjunction with each other to deliver a more vibrant result. However, one also sees evidence of his having looked at the British Vorticists and some of his impressive, war-related canvases of the 1940s were painted in a combination of these styles. The adjoining photograph shows him in his studio working on Peace Celebrations, Moscow, 9 May 1945, and in the background can be seen a small section of Fires of Victory, Moscow, 9 May 1945. The fountains of coloured lights in these paintings dramatically intersected by angular searchlights, provide some of his most successful compositions.
The auction records for Barry's works are not numerous, but they are nevertheless impressive: in 2001 two large, pointillist works by Barry sold in these rooms; the first, entitled Victory Celebrations, sold for what was then a world record hammer price of £40,000, quickly followed by Blitz on St Paul's at £44,000. In 2005 these prices were dwarfed when Fireworks in Moscow sold on the London market for £68,000.
Saleroom notices
Please note this painting will be sold with a copy of Katie Campbell's book Moon Behind Clouds, An Introduction to the life and work of Sir Claude Francis Barry.