Michael Ayrton (1921-1975)
Girl Wringing out her Hair
Patinated bronze, 1962
26cm in height
Michael Ayrton was a British artist and writer, renowned as a painter, printmaker, sculptor and designer, and also as a critic, broadcaster and novelist. This sculpture, rendered in patinated bronze, is a portrayal of an unposed nude, one of Ayrton’s favourite subjects. In his book “Drawings and Sculpture”, Ayrton muses on his studies of bathers: ‘I like to study the nude when he or she is untroubled by my observation, and bathers in general are the only nudes, or semi-nudes, who are not particularly interested in the onlooker.’
Provenance: Acquired directly from the Artist by Nigel Balchin, a close friend of Ayrton’s, thence by descent to the previous owner. Sotheby’s, Lot 128, 11 July 2013.
Literature: Michael Ayrton, Drawings and Sculpture, with a Forward by C. P. Snow, Cory, Adams & Mackay, London, 1962, illustrated pl.73 (another cast).
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