Footnotes

Provenance
The Artist, from whom acquired by
Sir John Craven (1940-2022)

Literature
Jonathan Bennington, Sophie Ryder, Lund Humphries in association with Berkeley Square Gallery, Aldershot and London, 2001, p.24, cat.no.12 (col.ill., another cast)

'She feels right to me, as if she had always existed in myth and legend, like the minotaur'

The hare, an animal enshrined in mystique as well as folklore, has been central to Sophie Ryder's output. The hare made its first appearance in her work from the early 1980s and by 1990 she defined the animal's sex as female by placing it next to the minotaur, a mythological creature who is half man and half bull. The Lady-Hare emerged in 1996 and comprised a female trunk with breasts, arms and legs, crowned by a hare's head. In explaining the development of the theme, the artist has commented:

'I came up with the idea for the Lady-Hare when trying to work on a half-human, half-animal subject to use with the Minotaur. The hare seemed to work so well with a female human body. To me the long ears represent a mane of hair, and somehow the whole figure just works, and is so familiar to me. There is no legend behind the Lady-Hare, of course, but plenty of myth about the Hare itself' (Sophie Ryder quoted in Jonathan Bennington, Sophie Ryder, Lund Humphries in association with Berkeley Square Gallery, Aldershot and London, 2001, p.18).

Lady-Hare with Dog dates to 1998 and portrays the new relationship between a lurcher, an animal known for its ability as a hunter, and the hare who is traditionally the hunted. However, here the relationship is tender and reconciled as the pair tightly embrace in both physical and spiritual terms, the lurcher having submitted completely to the hare who offers comfort and understanding. As Jonathan Bennington has noted, Lady-Hare with Dog is evocative of Picasso's Shepherd carrying Lamb (1943).

We are grateful to the artist for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.