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Lot 56AR

John Craxton R.A.
(British, 1922-2009)
Welsh Shepherd Asleep 20.3 x 27.6 cm. (8 x 10 7/8 in.)

29 May 2013, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £28,750 inc. premium

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John Craxton R.A. (British, 1922-2009)

Welsh Shepherd Asleep
signed 'Craxton' and indistinctly dated (lower right)
oil on board
20.3 x 27.6 cm. (8 x 10 7/8 in.)
Painted in 1943 (according to a label verso)

Footnotes

PROVENANCE:
With Christopher Hull Gallery, London

Welsh Shepherd Asleep relates closely to an illustration by Craxton which features on the frontispiece of Ruthven Todd's surrealist novel The Lost Traveller (see Fig.1), published by Wrey Gardiner's Grey Walls Press in 1943. The tale tells of a young protagonist, Christopher Aukland, who after a blitz bomb blast awakes to find himself, time suspended, in a hallucinatory desert. He embarks on an odyssey of surreal moments drawing him to a dystopian city from which he unsuccessfully attempts to escape. Christopher is accordingly sentenced with the impossible task of seeking his namesake bird, the extinct Great Auk. Upon this quest he is captured at sea and savagely beaten to death by hostile fisherman, finally metamorphosing into the penguin-like Great Auk itself.

As form of gratitude for his contribution to the novel, Craxton was given a Joan Miró work in lieu of a monetary payment.

Additional information

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