Lot 131
JOHN BELLANY C.B.E., R.A., H.R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1942-2013) §
THE GREAT DREAM - TRIPTYCH
Auction: 14 August 2014 at 12:00 BST
Description
Each panel signed verso, oil on canvas, unframed
Dimensions
central panel: 173cm x 152cm (68in x 60in), side panels: 173cm x 91cm (68in x 36in)
Footnote
Note: This is one of the few works Bellany created as a triptych. His adoption of the format can be traced back to his admiration for Northern Renaissance artist Matthias Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece, as well as German Neue Sachlichkeit artists including Otto Dix and Max Beckmann who had appropriated and politicised the religious triptych motif in the 1930s. Indeed, one of Bellany's most famous and highly regarded artworks is the monumental work 'Allegory', painted in 1964 which consists of three sections. Subsequently this is an interesting return to the triptych form, both rare within his oeuvre and also to the market.