NATIVITY, 1929
Oil on canvas. 16 x 20in. (41 x 51cm.)
Signed, inscribed and dated on the reverse.
Provenance
Bonham’s, 20th October 1994, lot 57. Reproduced in b/w in the catalogue p19.
Sotheby's, London 8th. March 1995 as The Nativity, , lot 126.
Phillips, London, 1st October 1996.
Bonham’s, 20th September 2005, lot 43.
Mary wears oriental pantaloons, upturned Turkish slippers and a cut-away long-sleeved blouse that exposes her breasts. The figures of Mary and Joseph dominate the painting. The limbs of the figures are elongated, particularly evident in Mary’s arms. The handling of the faces is coarse. The perspective is distorted. Two cattle in the foreground are reduced to their horns, like crescent moons. There are simplified stable buildings in the background.
Offered by Bonham’s, 2005 with a letter from Toni del Renzio stating that the work was painted c1929 when Colquhoun was a student at the Slade. T Del Renzio suggests that the number 64 at the lower right probably relates to a competition in which she entered this work. Note that the self portrait in the Borchard collection (Self Portrait c.1929) also has the number 64 in a lower corner, as do a number of Slade studies in the Tate archive, so perhaps it was Colquhoun’s identification number.