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Lot 229^AR

Michael Ayrton
(British, 1921-1975)
Self-Portrait

15 April 2025, 10:00 BST

London, New Bond Street

Sold for £2,048 inc. premium

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Michael Ayrton (British, 1921-1975)

Self-Portrait
pencil on paper
24.75 x 35cm (9 3/4 x 13 3/4in).

Footnotes

Provenance
With Keith Chapman, London, where acquired by the present owner, 24 September 1993

Ayrton made self portraits throughout his life and in all media - a practice which had its roots in his early admiration of Dürer, whose work he copied in the Albertina on an extended stay in Vienna when he was fifteen. That experience was the beginning of his belief in drawing as the artist's fundamental tool and discipline; whatever other work he was involved with he drew every day.

This small, intimate drawing, not particularly intended for exhibition, typifies his belief in drawing as "the process by which the artist makes clear to himself what he is doing ... by which [his] experience is simultaneously ordered and enlarged". Ayrton's health from childhood was often precarious, and much of his work was physically demanding, giving him an acute awareness of his own body. Self portraits like this one were a way of acknowledging that awareness, as well as an exercise in concentration to prepare eyes, fingers and mind for the working day ahead.

We are grateful to Justine Hopkins for compiling this catalogue entry.

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