Lynn Chadwick R.A.

(British, 1914-2003)

Pair of Sitting Figures V 73 cm. (28 3/4 in.) deep Conceived in 1973 and cast in 1987 by Burleighfield

Footnotes

Provenance
The Artist, by whom gifted to his son
Simon Chadwick, thence by family descent to the present owners
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
London, Marlborough Fine Art, Chadwick: Recent Sculpture, January 1974, cat.no.27 (another cast)

Literature
Dennis Farr & Éva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick, Sculptor, With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue 1947-1996, Lypiatt Studio, Stroud, 1997, pp.280-281, cat.no.658 (ill.b&w, another cast)
Dennis Farr & Éva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick, Sculptor, With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue 1947-2005, Lund Humphries, Aldershot, 2006, pp.288-289, cat.no.658 (ill.b&w, another cast)
Dennis Farr & Éva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick Sculptor, With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue 1947-2003, Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2014, p.296, cat.no.658 (ill.b&w, another cast)

A couple as a subject appears in Chadwick's career as early as the mid-1950s with dancers, teddy boys and girls, winged figures and the 'encounter' series. To a greater or lesser extent, each of these couples had a role ascribed by Chadwick. They pirouetted, they subverted, they poised for flight, they rendezvoused. It is only in the early 1970s that Chadwick focused on the couple existing purely as a dynamic and this would go on to be perhaps the most instantly familiar vein of his output. The present work is the fifth in a series of twelve such pairs made between 1973 and 1975, who are described not by their role but by their stance – they are simply sitting. But it is in the simplicity of this construct that Chadwick finds a fruitful variety of nuance.

This was a development of which, as Michael Bird has noted, Chadwick was keenly aware:

'His increasing tendency to interpret his work in terms of human relationship, rather than formal balance, begins to be audible. "Presences" was how he referred to his new figure sculptures; they were about being, not doing: "I used to call them Watchers, but no longer. Sometimes they are not watching anything. What they are doing is illustrating a relationship – a physical relationship – between people". It was through this relationship, not through purely formal or allusive qualities, that he wanted his sculptures to speak: "If you can get their physical attitudes right you can spell out a message"' (Michael Bird, Lynn Chadwick, Lund Humphries, Farnham, Surrey, 2014, p.147).

In the present arrangement the 'physical attitude' that Chadwick has achieved is enchantingly dichotomic in several regards. The two figures have a grounded sturdiness, communicated by the bulk of their forms, yet also a liveliness is introduced by the subtle movement suggested by the slightly raised legs, the angles of the feet and the positioning of the heads. They are resolutely modern, futuristic even, yet the incorporation of their arms into their torso's, forming wings, reference the sculptural traditions of classicism. And ultimately the figures are cast separately and can therefore be displayed in a variety of arrangements, yet they tesselate so intimately that they seemingly exist as a single, inseparable unit.

We are grateful to Sarah Chadwick for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.