Lynn Chadwick R.A.

(British, 1914-2003)

Maquette Jubilee II Male figure: 86.5 x 60 x 119.5 cm. (34 x 23 5/8 x 47 in.) high, wide, long
Female figure: 88 x 85 x 108 cm. (34 5/8 x 33 ½ x 42 ½ in.) high, wide, long

Footnotes

Provenance
The Artist, thence by family descent

Exhibited
London, Marlborough Gallery, Masters of Modern and Contemporary Sculpture, 8 November-4 December 1984 (another cast)
Yorkshire, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, September 1991-February 1992 (this cast)

Literature
Dennis Farr & Éva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick, Sculptor, With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue 1947-1996, Lypiatt Studio, Stroud, 1992, p.334, cat.no.C3S
Dennis Farr & Éva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick, Sculptor, With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue 1947-2005, Lund Humphries, Aldershot, 2006, p.342, cat.no.C3S
Dennis Farr & Éva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick, Sculptor, With a Complete Illustrated Catalogue 1947-2003, Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2014, p.347, cat.no.C3S

'The two noble figures walk against the wind, their robes flying in the air and floating on the ground. A magnificent pattern is created by their noble stance, as their feet move forward and their heads rise in pride'

(Judith Collins, Lynn Chadwick, The Collection at Lypiatt Park, Ruder Finn Press, New York, 2006, p.152)

Whilst the 'Jubilee' series was first conceived in 1977, it was a theme that Chadwick returned to numerous times over the following decade and the present lot, Maquette for Jubilee II dating from 1983 and enjoying outstanding provenance directly from the artist's family, can be seen as a tour de force by an artist at the height of his sculptural prowess. The series is widely considered as a pinnacle of a long, triumphant career and this academic admiration is echoed by commercial success with the top two (seven-figure) prices at auction for the artist both being for versions of 'Jubilee'.

When Lynn Chadwick was awarded the coveted prize for sculpture in the 1956 Venice Biennale, it was the sensation of the show and he became the youngest sculptor ever to do so. Contemporaries heralded him as the natural successor to Henry Moore, intended as the highest compliment one could pay a sculptor. However, where Moore focussed on curves, naturalism and the mother and child theme, Chadwick was forming his own entirely unique vocabulary of line, mass and motion with his passion being the male and female couple. Throughout his career, he conceived of them in a multitude of forms, finishes and poses. Beginning in the 1950s, they were youthful 'Dancing figures' and 'Teddy boys and girls' who gave way to the 'Watchers' of the 60s. Sometimes they were 'conjoined' or bound together with wings and cloaks and sometimes they were placed apart, a couple still but independent from one another. Nearly always, however, they were standing and it was not until the 1970s that Chadwick's couples began to rest and could be found sunk to the floor, sitting or reclining. Further to the theme of the male and female couple was the artists obsession with action in sculpture, both actual and implied. From his early mobiles to the later walking women with windswept hair, movement was a lifelong concern and in the present work, we can see the successful culmination of both pursuits – the romantic couple and figures in motion.

Michael Bird has explained the 'Jubilee' of the title is derived from the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession in 1952 but also acknowledges the ceremonial feel of a man and woman striding side by side. Certainly, in the present work, the couple advance forwards, stately in their motion. This formal attitude is reinforced through the artist's use of drapery, they move through space majestically and with quiet dignity in the face of the invisible wind that surrounds them. Their garments are most noticeable from the back where "these billowing cloaks assume the fan shape of a dove displaying its tail feathers" (Dennis Farr and Eva Chadwick, Lynn Chadwick, Sculptor, Lund Humphries, 2014, p.28) however head on, the female is presented in what is suggested as a dress. It clings to her form like that of a Hellenistic goddess and allows a sculptor consumed by angularity to introduce some curves. The male is rendered with a deep fissure running the central length of his torso to represent a shirt/cloak but in formal terms, for both figures, these flowing vestments serve to contrast with the angularity of the bodies they help to define. On a structural note, the cloaks are physically longer (119.5 cm.) than the figures are tall (88 cm.) so the bold presence of these protruding elements had an important practical role to play as it spread the weight of the heavy bronze to a point away from the thinner legs. Thus, 'while thinking always in sculptural terms of mass, weight and movement, Chadwick invest[s] his abstract shapes with allusive vitality' (Ob. Cit., p.24).

The faces are, as always, blank, with Chadwick once famously declaring "no expression is an expression" (Lynn Chadwick: The Couple, exh.cat., Pangolin London, 2011, p.3). He looked to body language as a more useful device for conveying attitude than facial features which could be limiting but here they are burnished to a flawless golden lustre and serve to juxtapose beautifully with the dark textured bodies of the figures and their swirling cloaks, like bronze beacons in the midst of an imagined storm.

We are grateful to the Artist's Estate for their assistance in cataloguing this lot.