The Mountain Mists
signed 'Herbert Draper' (lower right), inscribed 'The MOUNTAIN MISTS/Sketch for the large picture' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
52.2 x 30cm (20 1/2 x 11 3/4in).
unframed

Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection.

The present lot relates to Herbert Draper's 1912 Royal Academy work of the same title, a much larger canvas, recently sold at auction (see Christie's, New York, 13 October 2021, lot 7).

Described by Simon Toll as 'a swirling mass of mist, fair and lithe female flesh [that] revels in erotic abandon', the subject is closely related to Draper's 1906 work, Day and the Dawnstar.¹ As Toll notes, Draper 'recognised the artistic quality and commercial value of his oil sketches', and the present lot, as with a study for Day and the Dawnstar (sold in these rooms, 6 December 2000, lot 98, the same size as the present lot) might be considered a smaller version of the prime painting, rather than a preparatory study; indeed, in both cases, earlier, looser sketches are known, produced by the artist in order to 'harmonise the colour scheme.' (see Bonhams, London, 17 March 1994).²

¹Simon Toll, catalogue note, Bonham's Knightsbridge, 6 December 2000, p. 52.
²Simon Toll, Herbert Draper: A life study, Woodbridge, 2003, pp. 150-151, also colour plates 38 & 39.

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- 19th Century & Orientalist Paintings