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74 - Spencer Frederick GORE (1878-1914) Singer in a Music Hall, c…
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Estimate €8,000 - €12,000
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Description
Spencer Frederick GORE (1878-1914) Singer in a Music Hall, circa 1909 Oil on canvas, inscribed on the stretcher S.F. Gore 19 Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy Square/London 35.6 x 30.5 cm Exhibition: Paris, Salon des Indépendants, March-May 1910, no. 2185, under the title Chanteur Provenance: private collection in the south of France Painted around 1909, Chanteur dans un music-hall (Singer in a Music Hall) is one of a series of music-hall scenes that occupied a central place in Spencer Frederick Gore's output. On the eve of the formation of the Camden Town group, this subject testifies to the interest shared with his friend and compatriot Walter Sickert (1860-1942) in these modern London performance spaces, seen as much as places for social observation as for pictorial research. The frontal composition, adopted here from behind the orchestra pit, follows a pattern inherited from Sickert's early music-hall scenes, which Gore appropriated before 1910. It is echoed in another work by the artist, Dame au dulcimer, now in a private collection, featuring the same orchestral figures and organisation of the stage space. This analogy reveals that the artist certainly worked from motifs created on the spot, then recomposed in the studio. The set, reminiscent of the Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square, with its characteristic pomp of singing, ballet, acrobatics and occasional film projections, is similar to that of Inez et Taki (1910), which is known to have been set in this music hall. These venues, with their wealth of sets, costumes and movement, were a source of inspiration for Gore, resulting in these structured, dense and decorative compositions that serve as visual records of these shows. In this respect, our work is part of one of the most accomplished moments in the artist's career. The stretcher of the work and its original frame preserve a wealth of valuable information, possibly written by the artist. The handwritten address 19 Fitzroy Street refers to the meeting place of the eponymous group formed around Sickert from 1907 onwards, a place for work, conservation of works and exchanges; a decisive place of emulation in the emergence of British pictorial modernity. A partially preserved old label, bearing the words Chanteur and the number 2185, also identifies the painting as the one exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris in 1910. As with most of the artist's works, the absence of a signature suggests that this work was sold during his lifetime, possibly at the same exhibition in France.
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About the sale Drawings, Paintings Asian and Islamic Art, Sculptures, Furniture, Works of Art 20th century Decorative Arts Carpets
Auction location
Auction time 06/16/2026 at 1:30 PM
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