Oil on canvas, 74.5 by 61.5 cm. (29 ¼ by 24 ¼ ins)

Provenance: Sir Michael Sadler in 1932; Christie's, London, 16 June 1950, lot 6; Eric Estorick, London

Exhibited: London, Leicester Galleries, Paintings by Mark Gertler, October 1932, no.10

Literature: John Woodeson, Mark Gertler, Sidgwick and Jackson, London, 1972, p.389; Sarah MacDougall, Mark Gertler, John Murray, London, 2002, p.308

Eclectic man-made objects are an occasional feature in Gertler’s many still lifes – a genre that is central to his work throughout his relatively short career. The Benin Head in the present work appears to have been in the artist’s possession as early as 1915 when he wrote to Dora Carrington: "The other day I picked up a piece of African sculpture wood, like they have in the B.M., for 10s.! It gives me great delight and is like my work". As well as this earlier work, two from 1937 are recorded by John Woodeson (op cit) (one of which, Still Life with Fan and Benin Head was offered at Sotheby’s, 7th November 1990, lot 103). Later still lifes like these also show Gertler at his most experimental and semi-abstract, described by Sarah MacDougall as ''a final clarification of colour and design…using a semi-cubist structure to balance complex combinations of curved and geometrical forms…Gertler breaks all the rules of colour...placing combinations such as blue against orange…ultimately reconciling the whole through an internal frame or the careful positioning of a black line.” (MacDougall, op cit. p.308).