Ithell Colquhoun

(British, 1906-1988)

Battle Fury of Cuchullin 73 x 59.5 cm. (28 3/4 x 23 3/8 in.)

Footnotes

Provenance
The Artist, by whom gifted to
Derek Stanford, thence by descent
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
London, The Odeon, Swiss Cottage, The 'Hampstead News' festival of Hampstead Art, 25 May-3 June 1950, no.64
London, South London Art Gallery, W.I.A.C. Summer Exhibition of Contemporary Paintings and Sculptures, 2 July–12 August 1950, no.51
Cambridge, Heffer Gallery, Ithell Colquhoun, Paintings and Drawings 1942-1953, 20 April–9 May 1953, no.17

The writer Derek Stanford (1918-2008) was a respected poet and essayist, who worked closely with the novelist Muriel Spark during the early 1950s. His book of literary memoires, Inside the Forties, contains reminiscences of his long-standing friendship with Ithell Colquhoun. In 1979 when she was drawing up her will he agreed to be her literary executor and was offered a painting in appreciation.

According to legend, Cuchullin (more commonly spelt Cuchulain) was one of the mightiest heroes of the Celtic race and Champion of Ireland. During combat he would become possessed by a battle fury which made him unbeatable. He features in a number of plays and poems by W.B. Yeats, an individual much admired by Colquhoun as much for his magical attainments as his literary abilities. The present work was painted, in part, using the decalcomania technique that Colquhoun employed extensively ever since her discovery of surrealist automatisms in 1939. Her article, The Mantic Stain, (Enquiry, 1949, vol.2, no.4, pp.15-21) was the first article in the English language to deal extensively with automatism and still remains the most detailed exposition of the various techniques.

We are grateful to Richard Shillitoe for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.