Julio González

Stern Mask

1940

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Not on display

Artist: Julio González 1876–1942
Original title: Masque rigoureux
Medium: Ink, graphite and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 311 × 241 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by Mme Roberta Gonzalez-Richard, the artist's niece 1972
Reference: T01621

Catalogue entry

Julio González 1876-1942

T01621 Masque rigoureux (Stern Mask) 1940

Not inscribed
Pencil, ink and wash on paper, 12 1/4 x 94 (32.4 x 24.2)
Presented by Roberta González 1972
Lit: Josette Gibert, Julio González Dessins: Projets pour Sculptures: Figures (Paris 1975), p.137 repr. (dated c.1940)
Repr: Ronald Alley, The González Gift to the Tate Gallery (London 1974), p.37

Though dated by Roberta González c.1939-40, this clearly belongs to the same series of mask-like heads as T01624 and is particularly similar to the later works of the series dated between 14 and 19 May 1940 (cf. Gibert, op. cit., pp.132-6). All of these are completely frontal and very heavily modelled, with angular contrasting planes, and are tragic in feeling. The extremely sombre mood which they express is perhaps connected with the fact that this was the moment when the French armies were being over-run and France invaded.

[All the drawings by Julio González given to the Tate are authenticated on the back by his daughter Roberta González and inscribed with a title and date, or approximate date. The titles are used in the catalogue entries, but the dating has been made more precise wherever possible. (Julio González's drawings are usually dated from about 1934 onwards, but the great majority of the early drawings are undated).]

Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.322, reproduced p.322