Beschreibung:

GAUDIER-BRZESKA, Henri. Pen and black ink drawing of an elephant, inscribed in pencil 'à mon ami Annie Elizabeth' and signed and dated 'H. Gaudier-Brzeska 1913', 283 x 364mm. (Lightly browned at margins, a little faded, small marginal surface abrasion, minor marginal creasing.) Hinge-mounted and matted. Provenance : 'Annie Elizabeth' (artist's presentation inscription) -- Wilson Stephens Fine Art, London (invoice dated 1994, stating that: 'the grandmother of the previous owner purchased this drawing, in a group of works by the artist, by replying to an advertisement placed by Horace Brodzky in The Colour Magazine'). A STUDY OF AN ELEPHANT BY GAUDIER-BRZESKA, one of a series of animal studies executed between 1908 and the end of the artist's life, which originally found their inspiration in the mounted natural history specimens of the Cardiff Museum; later examples, such as this, were normally drawn during visits to zoos, particularly in the period 1912-1913. The original recipient of this drawing was possibly Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman (1860-1937), the daughter of Frederick John Horniman (tea merchant and founder of the Horniman Museum), who had studied art at the Slade School of Fine Art, before turning to the theatre. A friend of W.B. Yeats, she had funded the opening of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin in 1904, and it is possible that she had been introduced to Gaudier-Brzeska by Yeats' friend and fellow-poet Ezra Pound, who first met Gaudier-Brzeska in the summer of 1913.