117
Important Irish Art
,
wednesday 4th December 2013 at 6pm
79
Frederick E. McWilliam RA HRUA (1909-1992)
Girl Standing II, (1955) (a.k.a. Elongated Figure)
Bronze, 96.5cm (38”) high
Signed with initials and numbered 3/3
Provenance: From the Collection of George and Maura McClelland and on loan
from them to IMMA from 1999 - 2004; Private Collection Dublin
Exhibited:
F.E.McWilliam
Exhibition, Hanover Gallery London, Feb/Mar
1956, Cat. No. 9;
Vision and Reality: An Exhibition of Contemporary Paintings and
Sculpture
, Wakefield City Art Gallery, Sept/Oct 1956;
Contemporary British Art
, Silberman Galleries touring exhibition
New York, Washington, etc. 1956/57;
Five Sculptors
, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1957;
F.E.McWilliam Retrospective Exhibition
, Ulster Museum Belfast
April/May 1981, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Trinity College Dublin
May/June 1981,The Crawford Gallery Cork July/Aug 1981, Cat.
No. 26;
Works from the McClelland Collection
IMMA, Sept 2000 - Jan 2001;
Northern Artists from the McClelland Collection
Exhibition, IMMA
2004/5, and Droichead Arts Centre 2005; and
F.E.McWilliam Inaugural Exhibition
, F.E.McWilliam Museum, Ban
bridge, Sept 2008 - Feb 2009,The Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda,
Feb-Apr 2009
Literature:
The Sculpture of F. E. McWilliam
by Denise Ferran and Valerie
Holmen 2012, Cat. No. 141, p.120
Girl Standing II
is part of a series of sculptures made by McWilliam in the mid
1950s of figurative works given recognisable names, e.g.
The Sisters, Blind Man,
Boy,
but made abstract in their elongated bodies and simplification of form.
Inspired by his time spent in India during the Second World War, the sculptor
used the technique of isolating elements of the body and allowing the viewer to
fill in the rest of the details themselves.
In this sculpture, the head is emphasized while brief details sketch out the rest
of the figure as a girl. Her open stance with head raised and arms bent but out-
stretched at her side, and the textured bronze surface, were further developed
by McWilliam when he was commissioned to make the large public sculpture
Princess Macha
.
€15,000 - 25,000
From The McClelland Collection
