FREDERICK E. MCWILLIAM RA (1909-1992) Patriarch (1953) Iron cement over steel armature, 243cms (95.75 '') This is the original piece from which three bronze casts were made. One of the maquettes...

FREDERICK E. MCWILLIAM RA (1909-1992) Patriarch (1953) Iron cement over steel armature, 243cms (95.75 '') This is the original piece from which three bronze casts were made. One of the maquettes for this work (22'' high) sold in these rooms in December 2007, Lot 132 for ?58,000. Provenance: George and Maura Mc Clelland and on loan from them to IMMA 2000 - 2005 and from whom purchased by the current owner. Exhibited Arts Council England Open Air, Holland Park, 1954; Hanover Gallery, 1956 Cat. no. 1, 'The Patriarch, 8' 1953; Tate Retro 1989, Cat. no. 38, illus. p.51; A Selection of Works from the McClelland Collection, IMMA, Dublin, September 2000-January 2001; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, 2004; Northern Artists Exhibition, IMMA, Dublin 2004/5 and Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, 2005; F.E.McWilliam Gallery & Studio, inaugural exhibition, Sept 2008; Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, 2009. Literature Studio, 1954 review of Holland Park exhibition; ''F.E. Mc William'' by R. Penrose London 1964 No. 33 - a bronze cast illustrated; ''F.E. Mc William'' by J. Marle and T.P. Flanagan Ulster Museum 1981 No. 23 p33; ''The Hunter Gatherer _ The Collection of George and Maura Mc Clelland'' IMMA 2005 Fig 110 P117 (Full page illustration); ''F.E. Mc William at Banbridge'' by Denise Ferran F.E. Mc William illustrated p48; The Sculpture of F.E.McWilliam, Cat. No. 107, Denise Ferran & Valerie Holman, Lund Humphries in association with the Henry Moore Foundation, 2012. When F.E.McWilliam returned from France and married Beth Crowther in 1932 he settled in Buckinghamshire and began to carve in wood from fallen trees in his orchard. In 1937, after a visit to Hoptonwood Quarry in Derbyshire with A.H.Gerard and Henry Moore, he carved in stone. When he returned to his home in New Malden in 1946 after military service in the RAF, he began to experiment with new materials and make structures built on wire armatures. This method gave him a new freedom of expression, modeling rather than carving and an ability to create larger scale figures which resulted in 1953 in the large figure 'Patriarch' and the companion figure, the pregnant 'Eve'. When he was commissioned to create 'Princess Macha' for Altnagelvin Hospital in 1957, he stated that 'I now use bronze more than stone or wood. The raw materials of bronze, the amorphous clay or plaster may be coaxed to any degree of representation, while stubborn materials like stone and wood tend to protest if forced too far from the boulder and the tree.' 'Patriarch' and 'Eve' evolved from a familial series McWilliam began in 1948 with 'Study for Father and Daughter', 'Mother and Daughter' 1951, followed by a long series of 'Parents and Children' prompted no doubt by his two growing daughters. In 1953, he began 'Study Patriarch 1' 46 cm (18 in) and 'Study Patriarch 11' 56 cm (22 in) modelled in plastic metal which are both in the collection of the F.E. McWilliam Gallery & Studio, Banbridge. Study Patriarch 1 & 11, 46cm & 56cm, collection F.E.McWilliam Gallery & Studio, Banbridge. Photograph: F.E. McWilliam. The much larger 'Patriarch' 244 cm (96 ins) which was exhibited at the open air exhibition in Holland Park, was reviewed in The Studio, November 1954, 'The Patriarch, an eight-foot figure in plastic metal described by the sculptor as representing a symbolical father figure which holds in front of him a male and a female.' This is the work which Adams now presents for sale. McWilliam kept copious notes and manuals on new synthetic resins which he mixed with iron filings to build up the exterior over the metal core he had constructed. Some of these synthetic resins, powders and iron fillings remained in McWilliam's Holland Park Studio at his death in 1992 and these are now housed in the annexe of the McWilliam studio at Banbridge. This figure was cast in bronze in 1956, in an edition of three, 1/3 cast by the Morris Singer Company for the Silberman Gallery, New York which, according to the review in The Times, 16th October, 1956, 'The Patriarch has attracted particular attention'. Edition 2/3 was cast by Art Bronze in 1956 and acquired by the Georgian Gallery, Donaghadee. Edition 3/3, also cast by Art Bronze in 1956, was acquired by George McClelland, Belfast who sold it to Desmond Deery and then bought, at his house auction, by The Wellington Hotel, Belfast. Dr Denise Ferran October 2011

View more View less