Sir Roland Penrose

(British, 1900-1984)

God Help all the Leviathans 24.1 x 15.2 cm. (9 1/2 x 6 in.)

Footnotes

Provenance
Valentine Boué
Private Collection, U.K.
Private Collection, U.K., since 2010

A celebrated painter, poet, promotor and collector of modernism, Roland Penrose studied architecture at Cambridge and then painting after moving to France where he lived from 1922 to 1935. Penrose moved to Cassis-sur-Mer where he bought a house, Villa les Mimosas, that he shared with the Greek painter Yanko Varda and met his first wife Valentine Boué. It was here in 1924 that Penrose executed the present work which has clear debts to Braque and Picasso's Cubism.

The inscription at the bottom of this work 'God Help all Leviathans' relates it to an earlier work Pequod from 1923 (see Sale; Christie's, 6 December 2007, lot 62, sold for £22,100). Pequod refers in both subject and title, to a nineteenth century whaling ship that is included in the American author, Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby Dick. In literature, the term 'Leviathan' holds various historical meanings, originally the name of a mythical sea monster it later became synonymous with whales. Whilst the ship in this work is not named it is likely that Penrose drew inspiration from this novel as he had done in Pequod. Given that Penrose was a poet, literary significances abound in his work. Both Penrose and Varda were fascinated by this novel (references to it can also be traced in several of the latter's mosaics around this time) and it held a particular personal significance for Penrose in that it charted the adventures of Quaker captains and a Quaker community. Penrose had been brought up in strictly Quaker traditions. His father James Doyle Penrose was a moderately successful Irish Victorian portrait painter and a Quaker while his mother Josephine was the daughter of Lord Peckover, the head of the renowned Quaker banking firm that bore his name.

Whilst this work is imbued with literal and historical references it also embodies more direct influences on Penrose at the time. The inclusion of a French flag implies an identification with the artist's direct surroundings and it could be suggested the use of sand was inspired by Varda who had begun to include found material such as this in his mosaics and other works around this time. This work has significance in terms of the evolution of Penrose's style. It is a pre-surrealist work from the 'tender' moment when he was innocently living in Cassis before meeting Valentine and becoming closely involved with the Surrealists.