STUNNING black pastel study of a standing (presumed) black male nude!
Arguably the best of the collection I have, this is a really fantastic piece of work! It's the largest too!
Part of a great opportunity to acquire original vintage gay interest male nudes by this fascinating and fine American artist. At prices that are only possible because they were bought as the collection. And especially when as really lovely an example as this, these will be great investments! Even now, this should have a MUCH higher price on it! It would elsewhere! I know too many people have a daft perception that everything on Ebay should be supposed to be some sort of completely throwaway price, but reality is that that comes from a place of too limited understanding and is just wrong! This is a really good piece that actually deserves to be a lot more!
This being one of the collection of wonderful male nude studies (not academic) acquired from the artist's studio. Please see others concurrently listed. The David Hill studio contents having emerged from what was the estate of the Canadian artist Joseph (Joe) Plaskett (1918-2014). Please see biographical detail below. David Hill and Joe Plaskett lived together in Paris, and were inspired by Paris, where they were renowned for their legendary parties as well as their art. Guests apparently included artists, musicians and dignitaries from all around the world! But after David Hill's death, both their studio artworks, as retained by Joe Plaskett, later moved to the UK with Joe's move to Suffolk in 2000.
This example being particularly beautiful and also the largest (just) as also on wonderful paper too!
The semi transparent paper isn't watermarked, but it's incredibly fine laid paper and I think it was already long antique when bought, probably in one of the flea markets in Paris. I think it's REALLY early. It's earlier than 18th, so 17th century?
And the paper measures:
19 x 11 3/4 inches (48.3 x 30 cm)
With the drawing inscribed to lower right "Novembre 1962".
There are a few minor edge creases down the side and across the bottom which I haven't tried to iron out but they should, a little bit of snagging to the top right corner, and there's a faint semi-circular stain at the bottom where the date is. But it is still in fantastic condition (as early laid rag paper invariably is) and will display WONDERFULLY well!
I would also note that there's no smudging in any of the drawings and no inclination to smudge either.
I'm not conversant with who the subjects may have been re any of this collection of nudes, but many of the same sitters appear in multiple drawings, and that could be significant. It's very possible that some of them could actually be of Joe Plaskett, for instance (a very good looking young man he was too!). There are dedicated sites re David Hill, but I don't have access to them. So if anyone can shed any interesting further light re sitters, or anything else, therefore, do please say!
Re the collection I have as a whole, their condition in the main is absolutely excellent! A photo of the folio that has housed them and kept them so well, and wonderfully unexposed, is included for reference. But while generally all a good large size which will frame extremely well, they are all different sizes, and they're on lots of different types and tonalities of paper. I've therefore included photos with both a recognisable standard length pencil and standard sheet of white A4 paper so as to help provide some visual context re both size and colour. The paper colours mostly go from a relatively pale cream to a rich yellow cream through to quite a dark buff. But when subtlety is needed, the Ebay system is not good. It condenses colours too much and changes tones of otherwise perfectly well edited photos, with background shades that don't then want to be lightened without lightening the drawings too much as well. So please know that the drawings do stand out more in real life. And the paper colours are neither excessively yellow nor dirty, they're just lovely shades of cream.
As a general rule, it should never be expected for studies and/or sketches (or personal works) to be signed, although that isn't as well understood as it really should be. Standard practice was always that only works intended for exhibition and/or sale would usually be signed, and even then not always. So it shouldn't be surprising that the vast majority of this collection of nude studies are not signed. A very few have a squiggled version of a "D", so some might have been intended for sale, although not necessarily the ones one might think. Quite a few are dated, though, so one presumes that the record of when they were drawn was of significance to David Hill himself. But for record, going forward, their provenance of having come from David Hill's studio will be annotated verso in pencil. I haven't done it yet, but will before posting, so as to make absolutely sure that knowledge of their provenance and authorship will stay with them in perpetuity. Somewhat surprisingly, most of those that are so dated are actually from the 1940's, when David Hill was still working in New York before he moved to Paris. That he did so carefully keep them in that folio, and took them with him across the world, might therefore suggest that they weren't just an artistic record but were of personal significance to him too.
THE ARTIST
David Hill was an American artist of Dutch extraction who was born on the 19th November 1914 in New York, during the 1st World War. And he grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. His artistic aspirations were inspired early by the seminal experience of being taken round the world by his mother when he was 8 years old. And from that time on he drew and painted tirelessly. He also continued to travel extensively, always engaging with the different architecture and cultures, and sketching and painting wherever he went. Professionally, he worked and painted in New York from 1942 to 1947, but then moved to Paris, which became his home for the rest of his life. In 1957, he and Canadian fellow artist Joseph (Joe) Plaskett (1918-2014) pooled their resources and bought a home together at 2, Rue Pecquay in the Marais, one of the oldest districts in Paris. A beautiful medieval house that they restored together and filled with treasures they found in Paris flea markets. It was also renowned for the legendary parties they held there with guests including artists, musicians and dignitaries from all around the world!
David Hill's work in various media was always underscored by superb draughtsmanship, often imbued with a subtle surrealist quality and sometimes with an interesting faint hint of menace. He worked sometimes as a muralist, but he also painted very successfully, exhibiting in top Paris galleries, and was collected extensively, particularly in France and in the US. One notable regular patron being Cary Grant, who habitually bought from David Hill's series of egg still lives in order to present them to his leading ladies after each new film he made!
He was also a very successful commercial artist, providing illustrations for leading publications in both France and the US.
David Hill and Joseph Plaskett stayed together until David's death in Paris on August 31st 1977. The contents of his studio then stayed with Joe Plaskett, which is how they came to the UK, moving with him when he moved to Suffolk in 2000, and as only released after Joe's death in 2014 at the age of 96.
There is a portrait of David Hill by Joseph Plaskett in the Canadian National Gallery.
Hope you like, but do please ask re any questions, and do please note that UK postage is complementary and included in the "buy it now". Re international postage, please also note that postages will obviously be combined as/when appropriate.