£13,000
The Contents of Kirkton House | 546
Auction: 10 October 2018 at 11:00 BST
Etching, signed
39cm x 28cm (15.25in x 11in)
Provenance: Elizabeth Harvey-Lee, Oxfordshire
Literature: Guichard, Kenneth M., 'British Etchers: 1850-1940,' Robin Garton 1981, pl. 11, pp. 29-30.
Note: From an edition of 91 and believed to be the 5th and final state.
Note: Gerald Leslie Brockhurst's print masterpiece Adolescence is the focal point of the Kirkton House collection of etchings. As the artist's most celebrated work within the medium and one of the greatest prints of the 20th century, it is a perfect centrepiece to a carefully considered collection of British etchings.
Throughout his career, Brockhurst was particularly concerned with the evocation of feminine beauty. A precocious drawing talent, he commenced training at the Birmingham School of Art aged twelve, before going on to secure a scholarship to the Royal Academy Schools. He became one of the most successful and sought after portrait painters in London, but always maintained his fundamental skill as a draughtsman. When it became clear that the market for contemporary etching was growing, Brockhurst translated his drawing skills into the technique of etching, mastering the medium and publishing his first set of prints in 1920. The wider fashion in etchings at this time was for landscapes and cityscapes, but Brockhurst pursued the same subjects as his paintings, producing exceptionally detailed portraits and figures studies that became extremely popular. He drew on a wide range of visual influences that celebrated female beauty, from contemporary glamour portraits and fashion photography to Italian Renaissance paintings, to develop his own distinct style.
In his ongoing exploration of female beauty and the theme of young womanhood, Brockhurst utilised each of his two wives as regular models. His first wife, Anais appears in etchings he created throughout the 1920s, patiently posing as a range of different characters as well as herself, however, the marriage itself came under strain after she learnt of his infidelity with her sister, Marguerite. Brockhurst then met and fell in love with Kathleen Nancy Woodward, whom he re-named Dorette, following his established penchant for gifting his female portraits and sitters with exotic names, a teenage model at the Royal Academy. She became his regular model and muse, and is the figure depicted in Adolescence. Following his divorce from Anais, they married and moved to the United States, amidst an unsurprising whirlwind of scandal.
Adolescence is a charged work, as well as technical masterpiece. Brockhurst's mastery of the etching technique to render a range of surface textures and tones, particularly skin, is profound. This is the largest scale Brockhurst worked on in etching, yet the details are minute, and the process painstaking. His etchings have sometimes been mistaken for aquatints as he manages to create such tonal variety and soft edges, yet each work is etched, line by line, dot by dot. The subject is not so straightforward; the teenaged Dorette sits naked, contemplating herself in front of the mirror. It can be viewed as a psychological portrait as well as a physical one, exploring the complex and contradictory emotions and anxieties brought on by the process of adolescence, a conflict we can see across Dorette's expression, and in her uncertain gaze. This is a vulnerable moment where she is open with her anxieties and lack of certainty and confidence, rather than attempting to mask them. She is almost an adult, and is desired as one by the artist, yet there is still a great deal of youth and vulnerability to her, and it is this blurred boundary that so compelled the artist and continues to make this an enticing, elusive image.
Adolesence is widely considered a masterpiece of the etching medium, a tour de force of the skills required to work effectively in the genre, with a subject that is compelling and complicated in its surprising emotional depth. It is easy to see why it remains so revered, and not a little scandalous.