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Lot 79^AR

Frederick Edward McWilliam
(British, 1909-1992)
Cave 20.3 cm. (8 in.) high (including base)

Modern British and Irish Art

28 May 2014, 14:00 BST

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £22,500 inc. premium

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Frederick Edward McWilliam (British, 1909-1992)

Cave
carved beech wood on a metal base
20.3 cm. (8 in.) high (including base)
Conceived in 1935

Footnotes

Provenance
With Waddington Galleries, London
With Mayor Gallery, London
Dr. Terry Friedman
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
London, Waddington Galleries, F.E. McWilliam, 31 May-23 June 1984, cat.no.2 (ill.b&w)
London, Mayor Gallery, British Surrealism Fifty Years On, March-April 1986, cat.no.76 (ill.b&w)
London, Tate Gallery, F.E. McWilliam Sculpture 1932-1989, 10 May-9 July 1989, cat.no.8 (ill.b&w, where lent by Dr. Terry Friedman)

Literature
Denise Ferran & Valerie Holman, The Sculpture of F.E. McWilliam, Lund Humphries, Farnham, p.89, cat.no.15 (ill.b&w)

Whilst a student at The Slade, McWilliam had met Henry Moore through a mutual friend and by the mid-1930s he was creating a range of works based around a motherhood theme from natural materials such as stone and wood. In the same year as the present work he carved the perhaps more obvious Matriarch in cherry wood and whilst the example here (in beech) cannot be said to display this theme as overtly, the sensuous curves and pierced form are decidedly feminine. Similarly, the evocative title of Cave brings to mind a feeling of safety and warmth, clear associations of the mother figure.

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- Modern British & Irish Art