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Christopher Wood 1901-1930
Immortality Overcoming Time c.1926 Pencil 11 ¼ x 14 ½ inches (28.5 x 37 cm) PROVENANCE The Mercury Gallery, London, where acquired by Alberto de Lacerda in 1974; Private Collection.. In this drawing Wood depicts the quadriga by Georges Recipton mounted on the Champs Éllysées side of the Grand Palais in Paris. For Wood, with his strong and often stated drive to become one of the great modern artists, the title of the sculpture group must have held conscious resonance. However Wood has quite deliberately adapted the central figure of Immortality from its original male form in the sculpture by adding breasts. Here too there may be some personal dimensions. From his arrival in Paris in 1921 Wood’s sexual relationships had been exclusively with men, but from about 1925 he formed relationships first with Jeanne Bourgoint and then Meraud Guinness, with whom he planned to elope. |