Modernism and Still Life: Artists, Writers, Dancers

273 Pages·2020·22.394 MB·English

by  Claudia Tobin

MODERNISM AND STILL LIFE
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Edinburgh Critical Studies in Modernist Culture
Series Editors: Tim Armstrong and Rebecca Beasley
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Modernism and Still Life: Artists, Writers, Dancers
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www.edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/ecsmc
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MODERNISM AND STILL LIFE
Artists, Writers, Dancers
Claudia Tobin
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Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in
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areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge
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© Claudia Tobin, 2020
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
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ISBN 978 1 4744 5513 8 (hardback)
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ISBN 978 1 4744 5516 9 (epub)
The right of Claudia Tobin to be identifi ed as the author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003
(SI No. 2498).
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CONTENTS
List of Figures and Plates vi
List of Abbreviations x
Acknowledgements xi
Series Editors’ Preface xv
Introduction: ‘Nothing is really statically at rest’: Cézanne and
Modern Still Life 1
1 ‘Quivering yet still’: Virginia Woolf, Roger Fry and the
Aesthetics of Attention 33
2 Still Life in Motion 76
3 ‘Past the gap where we cannot see’: Still Life and the
‘Numinous’ in British Painting of the 1920s–1930s 124
4 ‘Inactive contemplation’: Wallace Stevens and Charles Mauron 160
Conclusion: ‘On the very brink of utterance’: Aldous Huxley,
Mark Gertler and Transfi gured Things 203
Bibliography 214
Index 234
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FIGURES AND PLATES
Figures
2.1 Margaret Morris Movement dancers performing ‘Sainte’.
Published in Reginald R. Buckley, ‘Woman of Dreams and
Deeds’, Lady’s Pictorial, 17 March 1917. Chelsea Miscellany
(CM)1759, Kensington Central Library. Reproduced with
permission of Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. 80
2.2 Fred Daniels, Hymn to the Sun, plate xxxii, in Margaret Morris
and Fred Daniels, Margaret Morris Dancing: A Book of Pictures
(London: Kegan Paul, 1926). Courtesy of The Fergusson Gallery,
Perth & Kinross Council/The Fred Daniels Estate. 81
2.3 Margaret Morris Movement programme design, c. 1914–19.
Courtesy of The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council, with
permission of Margaret Morris Movement International Limited. 86
2.4 Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Dancer, 1913 (posthumous cast, 1967,
of the original plaster sculpture), 765 x 220 x 210 mm. Image:
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. 87
2.5 Fred Daniels, Sculpturesque, plate XI, in Margaret Morris and
Fred Daniels, Margaret Morris Dancing: A Book of Pictures
(London: Kegan Paul, 1926). With the permission of The Fred
Daniels Estate. Courtesy of The Fergusson Gallery, Perth &
Kinross Council. 89
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FIGURES AND PLATES
2.6 Fred Daniels, Poise, plate I, in Margaret Morris and Fred
Daniels, Margaret Morris Dancing: A Book of Pictures (London:
Kegan Paul, 1926). With permission of The Fred Daniels Estate.
Courtesy of The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council. 89
2.7 J. D. Fergusson, Female Dancer, c. 1920. Courtesy of The
Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council. 91
2.8 J. D. Fergusson, Oak Rhythm, 1925, wood, 425 x 127 x 76 mm,
Tate. Presented by the Friends of the Tate Gallery, 1964. With
permission of The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council.
Photo: © Tate, London 2019. 92
2.9 Fred Daniels, Dryad, plate XXVI, in Margaret Morris and
Fred Daniels, Margaret Morris Dancing: A Book of Pictures
(London: Kegan Paul, 1926). With permission of The Fred
Daniels Estate. Courtesy of The Fergusson Gallery, Perth &
Kinross Council. 93
2.10 Fred Daniels, Palm Tree Rhythm, plate XXIII, in Margaret
Morris and Fred Daniels, Margaret Morris Dancing: A Book of
Pictures (London: Kegan Paul, 1926). With permission of
The Fred Daniels Estate. Courtesy of The Fergusson Gallery,
Perth & Kinross Council. 94
2.11 Margaret Morris photographed with a statue, c. 1920, unknown
photographer (possibly Fred Daniels), Margaret Morris Collection,
with permission of the Margaret Morris Movement International
Limited. Courtesy of The Fergusson Gallery, Perth & Kinross
Council. 98
2.12 Margaret Morris photographed in ‘The Golden Idol’ (1915),
copy of photograph by unknown photographer in the Margaret
Morris Collection. With permission of the Margaret Morris
Movement International Limited. Courtesy of The Fergusson
Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council. 100
Plates
1 Paul Céz anne, The Basket of Apples, c. 1893, Oil on canvas,
257∕16 x 311∕2 in. (65 x 80 cm), Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago.
Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, 1926.252. © 2019
The Art Institute of Chicago/Art Resource, NY/Scala, Florence.
2 Paul Cé zanne, Still Life with Apples, c. 1878, oil on canvas,
19.0 x 27.0 cm, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge on loan from King’s
College, Cambridge. © The Provost and Fellows of King’s College,
Cambridge.
vii
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FIGURES AND PLATES
3 Paul Cézanne, Still Life: Plate of Peaches, 1879–80, oil on canvas,
231∕2 x 287∕8 in. (59.7 x 73.3 cm), Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, New York Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K.
Thannhauser, 1978 78.2514.4.
4 Paul Cé zanne, The Black Marble Clock, c. 1870, oil on canvas,
55.2 x 74.3 cm, Private Collection/Bridgeman Images.
5 Vanessa Bell, decorative motif on door at Charleston, 1936,
oil on wood, 187 x 83 cm. Copyright the estate of
Vanessa Bell, courtesy of Henrietta Garnett. Photo © Penelope
Fewster for The Charleston Trust.
6 John Duncan Fergusson, In the Patio: Margaret Morris Fergusson,
1925, oil on canvas, 71.2 x 61.1 cm, National Galleries of
Scotland, bequeathed by Mr and Mrs G. D. Robinson through
the Art Fund 1988. © The Fergusson Gallery, Perth &
Kinross Council.
7 Winifred Nicholson, Mughetti, c. 1921–22, oil on board,
53.5 x 56.5 cm, private collection. © Trustees of
Winifred Nicholson.
8 Winifred Nicholson, Cyclamen and Primula, c. 1923, oil on
board, 500 x 500 mm. Image: Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge.
© Trustees of Winifred Nicholson.
9 Winifred Nicholson, Window-Sill, Lugano, oil on board,
286 x 508 mm, Tate, presented by the Contemporary Art Society,
1940 © Tate. Photo: © Tate, London 2019.
10 David Jones, The Artist’s Worktable, 1929, pencil and
watercolour, 62.3 x 50.2 cm, private collection. © The Estate of
David Jones/Bridgeman Images.
11 David Jones, Briar Cup, 1932, pencil and watercolour,
56.5 x 55.2 cm, private collection. © The Estate of David Jones/
Bridgeman Images.
12 Ivon Hitchens, Still Life with Potted Geraniums and a Pencil,
Bankshead, 1925, oil on canvas, 51 x 73.5 cm, private collection.
© The Estate of Ivon Hitchens/Jonathan Clark Fine Art.
13 Ivon Hitchens, Flowers in a Window, date unknown, oil on
canvas, 495 x 445 mm, Salford Museum & Art Gallery.
© The Estate of Ivon Hitchens.
14 Ivon Hitchens, The Blackbird Adelaide Road, 1937, oil on
canvas, 85 x 203 cm. © The Estate of Ivon Hitchens/Jonathan
Clark Fine Art.
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FIGURES AND PLATES
15 Ivon Hitchens, Autumn Composition, Flowers on a Table, 1932,
oil on canvas, 781 x 1111 mm, Tate. Presented by Mrs Mary
Hitchens, the artist’s wife, 1977. © The Estate of Ivon Hitchens.
Photo: © Tate, London 2019.
16 Ivon Hitchens, Spring in Eden, oil on canvas, 490 x 595 mm,
Swindon Museum & Art Gallery. Image courtesy of Swindon
Museum & Art Gallery. © The Estate of Ivon Hitchens.
17 Ben Nicholson 1924 (goblet and two pears), oil and graphite
on board, 355 x 433 mm. Image: Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge.
© Angela Verren Taunt. All rights reserved, DACS 2019.
18 Ben Nicholson, 1925 (jar and goblet), oil on composition board,
290 x 450 mm. Image: Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. © Angela
Verren Taunt. All rights reserved, DACS 2019.
19 Ben Nicholson, 1927 (apples and pears), oil and graphite on canvas,
438 x 678 mm. Image: Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge. © Angela Verren
Taunt. All rights reserved, DACS 2019.
20 Ben Nicholson, c. 1926–7 (still life), oil on canvas, 56 x 68.5 cm,
private collection. © Angela Verren Taunt. All rights reserved,
DACS 2019.
21 Winifred Nicholson, Flower Table, 1928–9, oil on canvas,
1128 x 802 mm, Tate. Purchased with assistance from the
Carroll Donner Bequest, 1985. © Trustees of Winifred
Nicholson. Photo: © Tate, London 2019.
22 Pebble spiral in Jim Ede’s bedroom at Kettle’s Yard. Image:
Kettle’s Yard, University of Cambridge. Photo: Paul Allitt.
23 Ground fl oor extension at Kettle’s Yard. Image: Kettle’s Yard,
University of Cambridge. Photo: Paul Allitt.
24 Georges Braque, Man with a Guitar, 1911–12, oil on canvas,
453∕4 x 317∕8 in. (116.2 x 80.9 cm), New York, Museum of
Modern Art (MoMA). Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest.
Acc. no.: 175.1945. Digital image © 2019 The Museum of
Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence.
25 Sir Jacob Epstein, Dahlias and Sunfl ower, c. 1936, watercolour and
gouache on paper, support: 558 x 431 mm, Tate. Presented through
the Friends of the Tate Gallery, Helena and Kenneth Levy Bequest,
1990. © The estate of Sir Jacob Epstein. Photo: © Tate, London 2019.
26 Mark Gertler, Queen of Sheba, 1922, oil on canvas, support:
1073 x 940 mm, Tate. Purchased 1963. Photo: © Tate, London 2019.
ix
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