CUCUMBER, 1939
Tempera on board. 15½ x 12in. (39.4 x 30.5cm.)
Signed and dated. Inscribed on the reverse.
ProvenanceSotheby’s studio sale, London, 24th April 1985,lot 494. (Dimensions given as 12 x 16in.)
Pruskin Gallery.
Exhibited
London, Mayor Gallery, 1939, No 14.
London, Leva Gallery, 1974, No. 11.
London, Parkin Gallery, 1977, No. 25.
London, Blond Fine Art, 1985, No. 38.
According to the Parkin Gallery catalogue, the work was exhibited at the Hamet Gallery in 1971. If so, it was ex-catalogue.
Literature
Ratcliffe (2007) illus. b/w. pl. 28.
This is one for the Freudians. Half a cucumber has been inserted, cut-end uppermost, into a glass jam jar.
One wonders whether the choice of medium is significant. Tempera uses egg yolk as the binding medium for the pigment. The use of the female yolk to depict a symbol of the male organ may not have been accidental in view of the artists’ occult and alchemical beliefs.
This work together with Scylla (1938) and L'Helice (1939) were sent to New York in 1940 for inclusion in an exhibition organised by Gordon Onslow Ford. In the event, none of the works were exhibited, probably as a result of the schisms in the British Surrealist Group. Colquhoun experienced some difficulty in recovering her paintings, thanks to wartime conditions.
Reference
Ratcliffe, E. Ithell Colquhoun. Mandrake, Oxford. 2007.