Horace Brodzky

Horace Brodzky1885–1969

T01787 Exterior of Gaudier-Brzeska’s Studio, Putney 1915

Inscribed on right margin ‘H. B. June 29/15/Putney/To be etched’, on bottom margin ‘Railway Arch 25’, on drawing b.l. ‘H. Brodzky June 29/15’ and on reverse ‘H. G-B’s Studio/at Putney/— /Drawn by/Horace Brodzky.’

Pen, pencil, oil, wash and crayon, 7 x 10¼ (17·8x 26·1).
Purchased from Fieldborne Galleries (Grant-in-Aid) 1973.
Coll: John Brodzky, the artist’s son.
Exh: Fieldborne Galleries, September 1973 (121,repr. pl.7).

This drawing was made on the same date as T01786. It shows the studio exterior as well as the small area bounded by a fence which Brodzky describes in his biography of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (p. 128):‘On summer nights he [Gaudier-Brzeska] would drag his portable forge out into this enclosure to cut and temper his chisels.’

As with ‘Interior of Gaudier-Brzeska’s Studio, Putney’ it is not known whether it was intended as an illustration to the biography of his friend which was published in 1933. Both drawings were found amongst Brodzky’s papers after his death in 1969. His son John Brodzky wrote (letter to the compiler 2 March 1974) ‘I feel sure if they had been intended for inclusion in my Father’s biography they would have appeared in it. He may of course have intended that they should be included in the later version of the biography, but I don’t really know since it has never been published and there are no details of the illustrations in the manuscript.’ In view of the early date of the drawings it seems most probable that the drawings are a purely personal record of his friend’s studio.

Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1972–1974, London 1975.