David Bomberg,
British 1890-1957-

Portrait of artist, 1937;

oil on board, 60x51cm, (ARR)

Provenance: Christies London 21 November 2013 lot 137, where purchased by the present owner (this lot is the verso of the original work).

Exhibited: Boundary Gallery, London

Note: David Bomberg was a British painter and member of the Whitechapel Boys. He studied at the Slade School of Art under Henry Tonks, and alongside artists such as Stanley Spencer, Ben Nicholson, and Paul Nash. After winning the Slade Prize for drawing in 1913, he travelled to France and met artists including Pablo Picasso and Amedeo Modigliani.

In 1914, he co-curated an exhibition with Jacob Epstein, in which five of his works were exhibited alongside those of Modigliano, Kisling, and other prominent Jewish artists living in France. His first solo exhibition (of 55 works) was held at the Chenil Gallery in 1914, where visitors included Brancusi, Marinetti, Duchamp and Augustus John. Later, upon returning to London, Bomberg taught Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach, forming the Borough Group. Bombergs work has been the subject of a number of solo exhibitions, including at the Israel Museum in 1983, at the Tate in 1988, and at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1979 when under the directorship of Nicholas Serota. His works are currently held at MoMA in New York, the Art Institute in Chicago, the Tate in London and National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.

This work is a particularly rare and unusual work from Bomberg, being the only known self-portrait in which the artist depicts himself wearing both glasses and a cap. It is nevertheless easily recognisable as one of the Bombergs self-portraits, a subject to which he repeatedly returns, applying distinctive shades of red, orange and blue with characteristically confident brushstrokes.

With thanks to Agi Katz for her assistance in the cataloguing of this work.