
Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
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Head of UK and Ireland

Head of Department

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Provenance
With Waddington Galleries, London, circa 1961, where acquired by
Mr. & Mrs. Louis Wolchover
Thence by family descent
Private Collection, U.K.
Literature
Denise Ferran & Valerie Holman, The Sculpture of F.E. McWilliam, Lund Humphries in association with the Henry Moore Foundation, Farnham, 2012, p.133, cat.no.229 (another cast, ill.b&w)
The present work is one of McWilliam's earliest reclining female figures in bronze (preceeded only by Reclining Figure, 1960) and, along with similar works from the same period, acts as a precursor to the celebrated 'Girls' series of 1969-71. Holman comments of the 1961-63 reclining figures; 'in these new sculptures, the body's curves have been straightened into geometric shapes and large facets which catch the light. Indeed it is at this point that light becomes a much more important feature of his bronzes' (Valerie Holman, The Sculpture of F.E. McWilliam, Lund Humphries in association with the Henry Moore Foundation, Farnham, 2012, p.61). This cast relates closely to the larger scale Seated Figure (Reclining Figure) 1961, cast 1 of which is in the collection of Queen's University, Belfast and was used as the basis for a 1979 commemorative Irish 20p postage stamp.
Mr. & Mrs. Louis Wolchover had family ties to the Waddington Galleries and their collection is noted by Roland Penrose in his 1964 book on the Artist.