James Pryde

Catalogue entry

N04488 THE GRAVE c. 1924

Not inscribed.
Canvas, 60×55 1/4 (152·5×140·5).
Presented by Lord Duveen 1929.
Coll: Purchased by Lord Duveen from the artist for presentation to the Tate Gallery 1929.
Exh: Goupil Gallery Salon, 1924 (69), as ‘Bed Series No.9, the Grave’; Coming of Age Exhibition, Bradford, February–March 1925 (122), as ‘The Grave - Bed Series No.9’; Brighton and Tate Gallery, July–October 1949 (51).
Lit: H. Granville Fell, ‘James Pryde, Painter’ in Apollo, XII, 1930, pp.355–6, repr. p.353; Hudson, 1949, p.80.
Repr: Tate Gallery, Illustrations, British School, 1938, p.92.

This picture is No.9 of the ‘Bed Series’, also called ‘The Human Comedy’, of which ‘The Doctor’ (N05172) was the first. ‘The Grave’ was one of the last important pictures to be completed by the artist. According to a note in the Gallery archives Lord Duveen encouraged the painting of this work with the promise that he would offer it to the Gallery.

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

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