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Modern British and Irish Art

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Lot 60^AR

Leon Underwood
(British, 1890-1975)
The Dance of Salome (Dancer) 41.5 cm. (16 3/8 in.) high (excluding the wooden base) Carved in 1922 as a white marble relief then painted, signed and dated in 1924 after the Alpine Club Gallery exhibition

12 June 2019, 15:00 BST

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £62,562.50 inc. premium

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Leon Underwood (British, 1890-1975)

The Dance of Salome (Dancer)
signed with initials and dated 'LU XXIV' (lower right)
marble in relief, part painted
41.5 cm. (16 3/8 in.) high (excluding the wooden base)
Carved in 1922 as a white marble relief then painted, signed and dated in 1924 after the Alpine Club Gallery exhibition
Unique

Footnotes

Provenance
The Artist
Thence by family descent
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
London, Alpine Club Gallery, Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture by Leon Underwood, Ralph N. Chubb, Olive Snell, 8-31 May 1924, cat.no.98
London, New Art Centre, Leon Underwood and 12 Girdlers Road, 23 November-24 December 1976
Chichester, Pallant House Gallery, Leon Underwood: Figure and Rhythm, 7 March-14 June 2015

Literature
Christopher Neve, Leon Underwood, Thames and Hudson, London, 1974, p.82 (ill.b&w.) as Female Figure, 1922
Ben Whitworth, The Sculpture of Leon Underwood, The Henry Moore Foundation in association with Lund Humphries, Much Hadham & Hampshire, 2000, p.123, cat.no.20 (ill.b&w.)
Simon Martin, Leon Underwood: Figure and Rhythm, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 2015, front cover, pp.80-2 (col.ill)

In the New Testament Salome, whilst not directly referenced, is considered the daughter of Herodias who bore a grudge against John the Baptist for stating that Herod's marriage to her was unlawful. Salome danced for Herod on the occasion of his birthday and as a result was able to obtain the head of John as a gift for her mother. Through the ages she has been commonly depicted as the personification of the lascivious woman, a temptress who lures men away from salvation. The story appealed greatly to painters and notable representations have been completed by Masters such as Lucas Cranach the Elder, Titian, Caravaggio and Guido Reni amongst others. Oscar Wilde created a Symbolist play based on the story of Salome, which was banned in London in 1892 and then made into a 1923 silent film of the same title and starring Alla Nazimova.

Whilst difficult to determine exactly, Leon Underwood was carving in 1919 and 1920, using pebbles that had been picked up on the beaches whilst on holiday. Influenced by the likes of Brancusi and Gaudier-Brzeska, Underwood graduated to marble with Hunter and Dog (1921-2) slavishly faithful to the latter's Wrestlers (1914, Tate Gallery) and sadly now destroyed. The Dance of Salome is carved in relief and is typically shallow as was the artist's preference, reflecting his continuing exploration of illusory depth in painting and print-making. Salome is voluptuously presented at three-quarter length, her twisted and contorted body emerging from the marble with a tremendous sense of movement for such a shallow carving.

The Dance of Salome was exhibited at one of Leon Underwood's first exhibitions at the Alpine Club Gallery in 1924 and was partly painted shortly after this. Illustrated as the front cover to the artist's retrospective exhibition at Pallant House Gallery in 2015, it is one of only a small handful of sculptures from the 1920s to appear on the open market and indeed the only in marble.

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