Paule Vézelay

Paule Vézelay b.1893

P02071 The Bathers 1923

Inscribed ‘The Bathers/No.7 of 25’ b.l. and ‘Paule Vézelay 1923’ b.r.
Linocut, 10½ x 9¼ (26.7 x 23.5).
Presented by the artist 1973.

This linocut is one (No.7) of a single edition of twenty-five prints made in 1923. The original linoblock is in the artist’s possession. A print was shown at the Venice Biennale of 1924 under the title ‘Nudes’.

In a letter to the compiler (18 January 1974) the artist wrote: ‘The linocut “The Bathers” was made in London after bathing from the rocks of the Chàteau des Enfants and the Hôtel du Cap during a summer at Cap d’Antibes. At this period I had not forgotten the graphic works I had admired when I was still at school—such as the woodcuts in “Punch” by Charles Keene, Phil May, works by Rowlandson, and some lovely watercolours given to my grandmother by David Cox, and prints of George Morland. There was an old arcade which I visited from time to time where an aged man had many “unwanted treasures” in his dark shop; from him I purchased wonderful Flaxman prints to illustrate Dante Alighieri, “Sketches by Boz” with 40 illustrations by Cruikshank and other books of value’.

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