Decomposing

Catalogue entry

N04668 DECOMPOSING c. 1929
 
Not inscribed.
Canvas, 13 1/2×15 1/2 (34×39); painted area, 12 1/2×14 1/2 (32×37).
Chantrey Purchase from Sir Gerald Kelly 1931.
Coll: Sir Gerald Kelly, purchased from the artist c. 1930–1.
Exh: R.A., 1929 (455); Contemporary British Art, Whitechapel Art Gallery, October–December 1929 (III), as ‘Decomposition’; Spring Exhibition, Oldham, March–April 1930 (185); Heffer Gallery, Cambridge, October 1931 (catalogue untraced); Anthology of English Painting, 1900–1931, French Gallery, November 1931 (6); R.A., 1932 (496).

One of a set of four pictures of lay figures; the other three, ‘Posing’, ‘Composing’ and ‘Reposing’ belong to Sir Gerald Kelly; ‘Decomposing’ and ‘Posing’ (R.A., 1929 (450)) were Becton's first exhibits in this genre and aroused considerable interest. All four were exhibited at Oldham in 1930. Of a second set, of three titles only, ‘Posing’ and ‘Reposing’ are in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and ‘Composing’ was bought by Isabel Jeans. (Information based on a letter from Sir Gerald Kelly, 25 February 1954.)

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I

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