MRS. PAUL, c.1929
Oil on canvas. 29¾ x 20in. (76.5 x 51cm)
Inscribed on the stretcher: ITHELL COLQUHOUN Mrs PAUL c.1929.
Inscribed on the reverse of the canvas: ROME SCHOLARSHIP IN MURAL PAINTING. I Colquhoun 10 Charlbert Street NW8
Provenance
Sotheby’s, London, 1983 or 1984.
Dickins, Middle Claydon, Buckinghamshire, 16 June, 2007, lot 226, as Nude study of a Woman.
A study of a nude model, seated on a red-fabric covered dais.
In 1983 Colquhoun wrote to Sotheby’s offering to consign a painting of a seated nude, 30 x 20ins. then rolled up, modelled by Mrs Paul who was ‘well known as a model at that time’ (TGA 929/1/2125). The correspondence is unclear, but the painting was probably offered at auction later in the year, and again at a ‘fast sale’ in late 1983 or early 1984. It was probably at this time that Colquhoun gave the work its title. A later inscription, Darling Walter, Memories! Fleur, not in Colquhoun’s hand, formerly lower right, has been removed.
This is one of a number of works with a Rome Scholarship inscription. Colquhoun applied for the Rome Scholarship in Mural painting for the years 1931, 1932 and 1933. She was unsuccessful on each occasion. The Rome Scholarships were awarded by the British School at Rome, which also offered scholarships in architecture, sculpture and painting, in addition to its primary purpose as an archaeological research institute. Candidates for the Mural Scholarship were required to submit: two figure compositions in colour, designed for wall decoration; a full-sized uncoloured cartoon for a portion of one of these; designs made with a view to the decoration of buildings; six drawings of the nude from life; one painting of a hand and one painting from the nude.
It is not known in which year Colquhoun offered the present painting. As one of the figure studies painted during her years at the Slade, it must have been at least a couple of years old.
