PART 4: THE ROARING INTERBELLUM

 FLORIS JESPERS

1889-1965

The Jewish Girl 

1927

Oil on canvas

105 × 70 cm

 PROVENANCE

Private Collection, Vienna; Whitford and Hughes, 1986

EXHIBITED
Antwerp, 1927

LITERATURE
SEUPHOR, Michel. Abstract Painting in Flanders. Mercator Fonds, 1974, p. 77-79, 120-124.
Modernism and Tradition, exhibition catalogue, Whitford and Hughes, 1986, London, cat. no. 17, ill. 

 GUSTAVE DE SMET

1877-1943

Le Couple au Village

c.1930

Oil on canvas

73 × 92 cm

PROVENANCE 
Galerie Le Centaure, Brussels, 1932; Van Parys Esq, Brussels; Acquired by his father directly from the artist; Whitford and Hughes, London, 1990.

EXHIBITED 
Ostend, Provinciaal Museum Voor Moderne Kunst, Gustave De Smet Retrospective, 1989; Venice, XXV Biennale Internationale des Beaux-Arts, 1950; Charleroi, Cercle Artistique et Literaire, 1953; Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Retrospective Gustave De Smet, 1961, cat. 164; 
London, Whitford and Hughes, Belgian Paintings 1880-1930, 1990. 
  
LITERATURE
Retrospective Gustave De Smet, Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, exhibition catalogue, Antwerp, 1961, cat. 164; HAESAERTS, Paul. Laethem-Saint-Martin: Le Village Elu de l’Art Flamand, Brussels, 1965, p. 429, no. 189; BOYENS, Piet. Gustave De Smet Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Ostend, p. 164, no. 118; BOYENS, Piet. Gustave De Smet Catalogue Raisonné. Antwerp, 1989, p. 397, no. 833; Belgian Paintings 1880-1930, Whitford and Hughes, exhibition catalogue, London, 1990, cat. no. 12, ill.

WILLIAM ROBERTS ARA, LG

1895-1981

Bicycle Boys

1939

Oil on canvas

81.25 × 101.5 cm

PROVENANCE
Leicester Galleries, 1941; The Redfern Gallery, London, 1942; Ernest Copper, Esq.; Whitford and Hughes, London, 1989.

EXHIBITED
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, Young British Painters, 1939. London, The Redfern Gallery, William Roberts, Exhibition of Drawings and Oils, 1942 (as Errand Boys); London, The Arts Council, Tate, William Roberts, A.R.A. Retrospective Exhibition, 20th November - 19th December 1965 (as Errand Boys), with tour to Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, and Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, De Fiets, 1977; London, Whitford and Hughes, Modern British Paintings 1880 - 1960, 1989.
 
LITERATURE
Young British Painters, Ashmolean Museum, exhibition catalogue, Oxford, 1939, cat. no. 90; William Roberts, Exhibition of Drawings and Oils, The Redfern Gallery, exhibition catalogue, London, 1942, cat. no. 29 (as Errand Boys); ROTHENSTEIN, Sir John. Modern English Painters, Lewis to Moore. 1956, p. 288; William Roberts, Paintings 1917-1958, 1960; William Roberts, A.R.A. Retrospective Exhibition, exhibition catalogue, The Arts Council, Tate, London,1965, cat. no. 62 (as Errand Boys), with tour to Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, and Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; De Fiets, exhibition catalogue, Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, 1977, cat. no. 90; Modern British Paintings 1880 - 1960, exhibition catalogue, London, Whitford and Hughes, 1989, cat. no. 31, ill.

FRITS VAN DEN BERGHE
1883 -1939

L’Homme Géographique 

1927

Oil on canvas

170 × 113.5 cm

PROVENANCE 
Collection of Walter Schwarzenberg, Brussels; Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, (Paribas) Brussels; Whitford and Hughes, London, 1990; Private collection, London. 

EXHIBITED 
Antwerp, Contemporary Art, 1930 (as ‘De Man van de Aardijkskunde').
 
LITERATURE
Selection, Cahier 12, p. 91; L’Amour de l’Art, Paris, May 1934; Le Centaure, Chronique Artistique Mensuelle, Year 3, March 1929, no. 6, p. 141; LANGUI, Emile. Frits Van den Berghe, Catalogue Raisonné de son Oeuvre Peint. Brussels, 1966, no. 230; Varietés, first year, 15 Nov. 1928, Brussels, no. 7, p. 393; Belgian Paintings 1880 - 1930, exhibition catalogue, Whitford and Hughes, London, cat. no. 11, ill.

MARIE VASSILIEFF
1884 -1957

The Circus 

c. 1915

Oil on panel

72 × 92 cm

PROVENANCE

A gift from the artist to Nina Hamnett; thence by descent; Whitford and Hughes, 1986; Sotheby's London, Russian Paintings part 1, 2010.

EXHIBITED
London, Whitford and Hughes, Modernism and Tradition, 1986.

LITERATURE
Modernism and Tradition, exhibition catalogue, Whitford and Hughes, 1986, cat. no. 20, ill.

BORIS GRIGORIEV
1886 - 1939

The Peasant Family

1923

Oil on canvas laid down on board

89 × 175 cm

PROVENANCE
David Burliuk, New York, 1964; Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1967; Whitford and Hughes, London, 1986.

EXHIBITED
London, Grosvenor Gallery, Aspects of Russian Experimental Art 1900-1925, 1967; London, Whitford Fine Art, Modernism and Tradition, 1986. 

LITERATURE
Aspects of Russian Experimental Art 1900-1925, exhibition catalogue, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1967, no. 37, cover illustration; Modernism and Tradition, exhibition catalogue, Whitford Fine Art, London, 1986, cat. no. 14, ill.

EILEEN AGAR RA
1899 - 1991

The  Angel of Mercy

1934

Plaster with collage and watercolour

44 cm high

PROVENANCE
Birch and Conran, London, 1987; Whtiford and Hughes, London, 1988; Private collection, UK.

EXHIBITED
London, Birch & Conran, Eileen Agar: A Retrospective, 1987; London, Whitford and Hughes, The Surrealist Spirit in Britain, 1988; London, Whitechapel Gallery, 2021. 

LITERATURE
London, Birch & Conran, Eileen Agar: A Retrospective, 1987, no. 8, ill.; Whitford and Hughes, The Surrealist Spirit in Britain, exhibition catalogue, London, 1988, cat. no. 1, ill.; Eileen Agar, exhibition catalogue, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 2021. 

ITHELL COLQUHOUN
1906 - 1988

The  Pine Family

1941

Oil on canvas

46 x 51 cm

PROVENANCE
Marcel Fleiss, Paris, 1982; Whitford and Hughes, London, 1988.

EXHIBITED
London, International Art Centre, Surrealism, 1942.
Palazzo Reale, Milan, Palais des expositions, Rome and the Kulturhuset, Stockholm,L’Altra metà dell’Avantguardia, 1910-1940, 1980-81.
Paris, Galerie 1900-2000, Paris, Les Enfants d’Alice: La peinture Surréaliste en Angleterre, 1930-1960, 1982.
A Salute to British Surrealism, 1930-1950, The Minories, Colchester, Blond Fine Art, London, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, 1985.
Marseille, Centre de la Vieille Charité, La planète affolée, Surréalisme, dispersion et influences, 1938-1947, 1986.  

LITERATURE
London, International Art Centre, Surrealism, 1942, cat. no. 4; Palazzo Reale, Milan, Palais des expositions, Rome and the Kulturhuset, Stockholm, L’Altra metà dell’Avantguardia, 1910-1940,  1980-81, Reproduced: p. 279; Paris, Galerie 1900-2000, Paris, Les Enfants d’Alice: La peinture Surréaliste en Angleterre, 1930-1960, 1982, no. 44, ill. p. 37; A Salute to British Surrealism, 1930-1950, The Minories, Colchester, Blond Fine Art, London, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, 1985,  no. 22, ill. p. 25; Marseille, Centre de la Vieille Charité, La planète affolée, Surréalisme, dispersion et influences, 1938-1947, 1986,  no. 70, ill. p. 174; London, Whitford and Hughes, The Surrealist Spirit in Britain, cat. no. 14, ill., 1988.