Nadia Bellingeri
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 9AR
Eileen Agar(British, 1899-1991)Figurehead and a Wheel, Charmouth, Dorset 6.8 x 6.4 cm. (2 3/4 x 2 1/2 in.) (image);
8.2 x 7.7 cm. (3 1/4 x 3 in.) (sheet)
8.2 x 7.7 cm. (3 1/4 x 3 in.) (sheet)
Ending from 1 May 2025, 12:00 BST
Online, London, New Bond Street£700 - £1,000
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Ingram Reid
Head Of Sale
Robert Jenkinson
Cataloguer
Eileen Agar (British, 1899-1991)
Figurehead and a Wheel, Charmouth, Dorset
photograph, gelatin silver print
6.8 x 6.4 cm. (2 3/4 x 2 1/2 in.) (image);
8.2 x 7.7 cm. (3 1/4 x 3 in.) (sheet)
Negative circa 1934-36, printed later
photograph, gelatin silver print
6.8 x 6.4 cm. (2 3/4 x 2 1/2 in.) (image);
8.2 x 7.7 cm. (3 1/4 x 3 in.) (sheet)
Negative circa 1934-36, printed later
Footnotes
Provenance
With Birch & Conran, London
Private Collection, U.K.
Exhibited
Punkaharju, Retretti Art Centre, Surrealism in Visual Arts and Film, 16 May-13 September 1987
Many of Agar's photographic negatives are now held in the Tate Archives, including for the present lot.
In 1934, Surrealism hadn't come to England yet, but Eileen Agar's orientation, then, was already definitely surrealist. In this photograph, the feminine figure listening to the wall and the wheel recalling the steering wheel of a ship leaning against the same wall, create a reality of their own, of a definitely feminine nature, while the mast coming out from the right balances them with its protruding, masculine, if not phallic nature, and refers them to their previous existence. While it would be excessive to call Agar's inspiration feminist, it still points to a double feature of her works throughout her whole career: her love of the sea and its permanence as well as her predilection for feminine elements, both being obviously linked.
We are grateful to Professor Michel Remy for compiling this catalogue entry.