Siege Battery Pulling In

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Artist/Maker Wyndham Lewis (British, born Canada, 1882 - 1957)

Date1918

MediumCharcoal, pen and ink, watercolor, and gouache wash on paper

DimensionsSheet: 12 1/2 × 18 3/4 in. (31.8 × 47.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of Omar S. Pound, Class of 1951

Object number1995.73

Not on view

DescriptionThe writer and artist Wyndham Lewis studied painting at the Slade School of Art in London from 1898 to 1901. After graduating, he traveled through Europe from 1902 to 1908, becoming one of the first British artists to be apprised of and influenced by contemporary art from France and Germany, including that of the Expressionist and proto-Cubist movements. By 1913–14, when he, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Edward Wadsworth, and others were formulating the Vorticist movement, he was considered to be at the forefront of British avant-garde art. The term “Vorticism” was coined by Ezra Pound, Class of 1905, H1939, in reference to the “vortex,” or “that point in the cyclone where energy cuts into space and imparts form to it . . . the pattern of angles and geometric lines which is formed by our vortex in the existing chaos.” Lewis became one of the main proponents of the movement, contributing numerous articles to its journal, BLAST, and writing its manifestos. Although Vorticism was formally related to Italian Futurism, the London group arose specifically to differentiate its members from the Futurists. The movement lasted from the summer of 1914 until 1919, a period roughly concurrent with World War I. The art Lewis produced during this period was marked by architectonic planes and machinelike forms. These elements can be detected in Siege Battery Pulling In, although the imagery is much more figurative and less abstracted than in his work of five years before. The composition documents Lewis’s experience at the front, where he served from March 1916 to 1919 as an artist with the Canadian Corps. It is one of a series of works he created in 1918 that focused on the industry and labor occurring at the front rather than on battle per se. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017)

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Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 64, illus.);

2005
Clinton, NY (Fred L. Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College). "Hamilton Collects, A Century of Curiosities: The Story of the Hamilton College Collection," September 29 - December 30, 2005 (unnumbered cat.);

1992
London, England (Imperial War Museum). "Wyndham Lewis: Art and War," June 25 - October 11, 1992 (cat. no. 25, illus., plate 25) [exhibited as "Siege Battery Pulling in (I)"];

1919
London, England (The Goupil Gallery). " 'Guns' by Wyndham Lewis," February 1919 (cat. no. 50) [exhibited as "Battery Pulling in (I)"].

Provenance 1995: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery) by gift of Omar S. Pound;
? - 1995: Omar Pound;
?: John Quinn.

Markings Watermark: unknown watermark at upper right.

Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 158;

A CENTURY OF CURIOSITIES, THE STORY OF THE HAMILTON COLLEGE COLLECTION, exh. cat. (Clinton, NY: Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, 2005);

Wyndham Lewis, 'GUNS' BY WYNDHAM LEWIS (London: William Marchant & Co., 1919), unpaginated catalog reproduced in Edwards, Paul, WYNDHAM LEWIS: ART AND WAR (London: Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd. in association with The Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust, 1992), appendix [published as "Battery Pulling in (I)"].

Paul Edwards, WYNDHAM LEWIS: ART AND WAR (London: Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd. in association with The Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust, 1992), pp. 38, 135, illus., plate 42 [published as "Siege Battery Pulling in (I)"];

reproduced in ART AND LETTERS (Winter 1918-19)

Signature Signed "Wyndham / Lewis" in composition at lower right in ink.

Inscribed "4 [circled]" on verso at lower right in pencil; " 13 1/8 x 19 1/4 / 19 5/8 x 25 1/4" on verso at lower right in pencil; "1 1/4" [bord.??] / 3. [plant??] / PROPORTIONA[TE?]" on verso at lower right in pencil; "316 [circled]" on verso at upper left in pencil.