Spencer Frederick GORE (1878-1914) - Lot 74

Lot 74
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Estimation :
8000 - 12000 EUR
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Spencer Frederick GORE (1878-1914) - Lot 74
Spencer Frederick GORE (1878-1914) Singer in a Music Hall, circa 1909 Oil on canvas, inscribed on the stretcher S.F. Gore 19 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy Square/London 35.6 x 30.5 cm Exhibition: Paris, Salon des Indépendants, March-May 1910, no. 2185, under the title Chanteur Provenance: private collection in southern France Painted around 1909, Chanteur dans un music-hall is one of a series of music-hall scenes that occupy a central place in Spencer Frederick Gore's output. On the eve of the formation of the Camden Town group, this subject bears witness to the interest shared with his friend and compatriot Walter Sickert (1860-1942) in these modern London performance spaces, envisaged as much as places for social observation as for pictorial research. The frontal composition, adopted here from behind the orchestra pit, is based on a scheme inherited from Sickert's early music-hall scenes, which Gore appropriated before 1910. It is echoed in another of the artist's works, Dame au dulcimer, now in private collection, featuring the same orchestral figures and organization of the stage space. This analogy reveals that the artist certainly worked from motifs created on the spot, then recomposed in the studio. The decor, reminiscent of the Alhambra Theater in Leicester Square, with its characteristic pomp of singing, ballet, acrobatics and occasional film projections, is similar to that of Inez et Taki (1910), whose location in this music hall is attested. These venues, with their rich sets, costumes and movements, were a source of inspiration for Gore, resulting in structured, dense and decorative compositions that provide visual evidence of these shows. In this respect, our work represents one of the most accomplished moments in the artist's career. The stretcher and original frame preserve a wealth of valuable information, possibly written by the artist. The handwritten address 19 Fitzroy Street refers to the meeting place of the eponymous group formed around Sickert from 1907 onwards, a place for work, conservation and exchange; a place of emulation decisive in the emergence of British pictorial modernity. A partially preserved old label, bearing the words Chanteur and the number 2185, also identifies the painting as the one exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris in 1910. As with most of the artist's works, the absence of a signature suggests that this work was sold during his lifetime, possibly on the occasion of the same exhibition in France.
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