MATRIARCH, 1982
Frederick Edward McWilliam RA HRUA (1909-1992)'F. E. McWilliam', Mayor Gallery, London, 3 May to 3 June 2006;
'McWilliam at Banbridge', F. E. McWilliam Gallery & Studio, Banbridge, September 2008 to February 2009 (illustrated p. 49 of exhibition catalogue);
'F. E. McWilliam at Banbridge', Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, February to April 2009
1931 F. E. McWilliam went to Paris with fellow Slade student Beth Crowther. Their intention was to make their lives as artists in Pari...Read more
1931 F. E. McWilliam went to Paris with fellow Slade student Beth Crowther. Their intention was to make their lives as artists in Paris but with the subsequent collapse of sterling both could no longer afford to remain in France.
After their marriage the following year in March 1932 they rented a house in Chartridge, Buckinghamshire where
he concentrated on sculpture, carving from Cherrywood, Beech, Elm and Sycamore, wood which was easily
available in the orchard and woodland around their home. The influence of Surrealism is evident in these early
sculptures as in Cherrywood Figure,1934, which depicts the human figure in simplified form, where the spaces in
the figure are as suggestive as the solids. Matriarch,1935, belongs to this period of figures carved from Cherrywood, where McWilliam’s regard for the material dictates the rounded thighs and knees, the simplified head, the rounded breasts and shoulders with a void in the centre providing movement to the static figure.
The human form remains constant in McWilliam’s work, even in his most abstract works. He had moved from
Buckinghamshire to Steele’s Road, Hampstead in 1936 close to Parkhill Road Studios where Henry Moore, Herbert
Read, Ben Nicholson and Barbara Hepworth lived and worked. Roland Penrose and Paul Nash, who became close
friends, lived close by as did W.J. Leech in Steele’s Studios. It was an art inspiring area. The following year he visited
Hoptonwood Quarry in Derbyshire with his former sculptor tutor at the Slade, A.H. Gerrard and Henry Moore which inevitably resulted in McWilliam carving in Hoptonwood and Portland stone. Later in the year he moved to his newly built home and studio in New Malden where his daughter Sarah was born shortly afterwards and then two years later in 1939, his daughter Bridget was born which can only have reinforced the theme Matriarch. He began his association with the Surrealists and had his first one-person exhibition at the London Gallery, showing sculpture and monoprints which he was introduced to by the Belfast artist John Luke. It appeared that McWilliam was now on a steady path as a noteworthy sculptor, except the outbreak of the second World War ended that and McWilliam joined the Royal Air Force in which his photography was used to interpret reconnaissance missions.
On his return from the war, he returned to his love, sculpture, carving in wood but also in new materials, especially concrete and terracotta but he maintained his ongoing theme, the human figure, as Reclining Figure, in
terracotta,1946. He returned to the theme of the Matriarch in a small work, Study Matriarch, in bronze from a plaster edition in 1951. The figure is delineated with crouched legs with an open format of arms and on top a small head. The same year he created Matriarch (Solitary Woman without Children), made of iron and plastic metal which he exhibited at the Hanover Gallery in 1952 and the Whitechapel Gallery in 1953. Again, he produces, in a much larger scale 7ft tall, a similarly depicted figure but with a small figure of an adult holding the hand of a child in the space between the outlined arms. The expression on the face of the woman embraces her longing for a child which she will never have. For whatever reason this work was destroyed but McWilliam produced Matriarch 11 in plaster in 1958, which had a crescent moon shape for a head but with a solid chest instead of the void in the iron and plastic figure of Matriarch,1951. This work he never cast but in 1982 he returned to the same theme, producing Matriarch in plaster which he cast in Bronze Art, Dublin in an edition of 3. The present work, illustrated, is over 6ft tall and similar to Study Matriarch, cast in bronze, 1951. It was exhibited at the Warwick Arts Trust, London but in its plaster state but it was cast in bronze for his exhibition in the Mayor Gallery. This work was included in the inaugural exhibition at the F.E. McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge and at the Highlanes Gallery in Drogheda, which I was fortunate enough to curate and to be involved in the design and completion of both galleries in 2008.
Dr Denise Ferran,
April 2024
- Auction Details
- T&Cs
- Bidding
Mary Swanzy HRHA (1882-1978) IN THE WINDOW, 1920s sold for €90,000 (estimate €60,000-€80,000), Sir John Lavery RA RSA RHA (1856-1941) MISS ALICE FULTON AT PAISLEY LAWN TENNIS CLUB, 1889 fetched €95,000 (estimate €60,000-€80,000), William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968) THE PLACE, CONCARNEAU, MORNING reached a sale price of €20,000 (estimate €4,000-€6,000), while William Conor OBE RHA RUA ROI (1881-1968) THE WHIRL OF THE DANCE achieved a result of €42,000 (estimate €20,000-€30,000).
Check unsold listing for works still available.
Clause 1
(a) Each lot is put up subject to any reserve price imposed by the vendor
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Clause 2
(a) The bidding and advances shall be regulated by and at the absolute discretion of the auctioneer and he shall have the right to refuse any bid or bids. NOTE: Where an agent bids, even on behalf of a disclosed client, the auctioneer nevertheless has the right at his discretion to refuse any such bid.
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(b) If any purchaser fails to pay in full for any lot within 21 days of the date of sale such lot may at any time thereafter at the auctioneer's discretion be put up for sale by auction again or sold privately; if upon such re-sale a lower price is obtained than was obtained on the first sale the purchaser in default on the first sale shall make good the difference in price and the expenses of re-sale which shall become debt due from him.
(c) Interest at 2 per cent per month and legal costs (if any) for recovery of monies due shall be payable by the purchaser on any overdue account.
Clause 5
(a) Each buyer, by making a bid, acknowledges that he has satisfied himself as to the physical condition, age and catalogue description of each lot (including but not restricted to whether the lot is damaged or has been repaired or restored).
(b) All lots are sold with all faults and imperfections and errors of description and the Auctioneer and its employees, servants or agents shall not be responsible for any error of description or for the condition or authenticity of any lot, save for Clause 5 (c) below. Written or verbal condition reports may be supplied by the Auctioneer on request but these are merely statements of opinion, and any error or omission in these reports may not be taken as grounds for a cancellation of sale or refund of any part of the purchase price or the cost of any repairs to the lot or lots reported on
(c) A purchaser shall be at liberty to reject any lot if he - (i) gives the auctioneer written notice of intention to question the genuineness of the lot within seven days from the date of sale; AND (ii) proves that the lot is a deliberate forgery and (iii) returns to the auctioneer within 20 days from the date of sale the lot in the same condition as it was at the time of sale; provided that the auctioneer may, at his discretion, on receiving a request in writing from the purchaser, extend for a reasonable period the time for return of the lot to enable it to be submitted to expertisation. NOTE: The onus of proving a lot to be a deliberate forgery is on the purchaser.
(d) Where a lot has been submitted to expertisation, all costs of such expertisation shall be paid by the person who retains the certificate of expertisation and item or items to which the certificate relates.
(e) Where the purchaser of a lot discharges the onus and acts in accordance with sub-clause (b) of this clause, the auctioneer shall rescind the sale and repay to the purchaser the purchase money paid by him in respect of the lot.
(f) No lot shall be rejected if, subsequent to the sale, it has been marked by an expert committee or treated by any other process unless the auctioneer's permission to subject the lot to such treatment has first been obtained in writing.
(g) Any lot listed as a "collection, range, portfolio etc." or stated to comprise or contain a collection or range of items which are not described shall be put up for sale not subject to rejection and shall be taken by the purchaser with all (if any) faults, lack of genuineness and errors of description and numbers of items in the lot, and the purchaser shall have no right to reject the lot; except that, notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this sub-clause, where before a sale a person intending to bid at the sale gives notice in writing to, and satisfies the auctioneer that any such lot contains any item or items undescribed in the sale catalogue and that person specifically describes that item or those items in that notice, then that item or those items shall, as between the auctioneer and that person, to be taken to form part of the description of the lot.
Clause 6
The respective rights and obligations of the parties shall be governed and interpreted by Irish law, and the buyer hereby submits to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Irish Courts.
Special Conditions
a) The buyer shall pay the Auctioneer a commission at the rate of 20% (Art sales) or 24% (Collectibles sales). The Buyer's Premium is added to the hammer price of all lots and is subject to VAT at the prevailing rate.
(b) The Auctioneer or its employees, servants or agents may, on request organise packing and shipping of lots purchased or may order on the buyer's behalf third parties to pack or ship purchases. Under no circumstances does the Auctioneer accept any liability whatsoever for any loss or damage howsoever occasioned in the course of such service.
(c) The buyer authorises the Auctioneer to use any photographs or illustrations of any lot purchased for any or all purposes as the Auctioneer may require. The placing of a bid will be taken as full agreement to all the above conditions.
WHYTE AND SONS AUCTIONEERS LIMITED, 2022
We hold two types of auction - TIMED and LIVE SALEROOM
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WHAT IS A TIMED AUCTION?Timed auctions do not have an auctioneer calling the bids – there’s just a bidding time frame and whoever bids highest during the time frame wins. Each lot can be bid on for a defined time period. At the end of this period, the bidder who has submitted the highest bid wins the lot, provided the bid exceeds the reserve price. You tell us the most you’re willing to pay – and we’ll bid intelligently for you, only bidding enough for you to meet the reserve or stay in the lead. Don’t worry, your maximum bid is not disclosed, and is held in confidence on our bidding system.
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2. LIVE SALEROOM AUCTION:
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To bid on-line at a Live Saleroom Auction:
• Log in or register bid.whytes.ie
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A FEW TIPS FOR ABSENTEE BIDDERS:
Bid the maximum price you would pay for the lot; we will try and secure the lot for you at the lowest possible price. For instance if you bid €2,000 on a lot and the highest other bid we receive is €1,200 you get it for €1,250. Most people tend to bid in round numbers, e.g. €500. It’s often a good idea to bid an odd number, e.g. €520, or €540 which will outbid an even number. Check the results the day after the sale: these are published on our website www.whytes.ie at about 10am on the day after the sale. Successful bidders are also notified of results by mail.
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The Buyers Premium for Art sales is 20% plus VAT ( 24.6% gross). The Buyers Premium for Collectibles sales is 24% plus VAT (29.52% gross). The Buyers Premium will be added to your winning bid amount. Your invoice will detail all the payment, collection and shipping particulars.