Guardia Civil

Details

SIR PETER BLAKE, R.A. (B. 1932)
Guardia Civil
signed and dated 'Peter Blake. 1957.' (lower right)
oil on board
11 ¼ x 8 ¼ in. (28.5 x 21 cm.)
Painted in 1957.

Provenance

with Waddington Galleries, London, where purchased by Erik and Lilott Berganus in June 1975.
with Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, where purchased by the previous owner circa 1990.
Their sale; Christie's, London, 8 June 2007, lot 99.
with Waddington Galleries, London, where purchased by the present owner in September 2010.

Literature

M. Livingstone, Peter Blake: One Man Show, Farnham, 2009, p. 41, no. 35, illustrated.

Exhibited

London, Portal Gallery, Peter Blake, Roddy Maude-Roxby, Ivor Abrahams, April 1960, no. 7.
Bristol, City Art Gallery, Peter Blake, November - December 1969, no. 13.
Darmstadt, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Realismus und Realität, May - July 1975, p. 53, no. 32, illustrated.
London, Tate Gallery, Peter Blake, February - March 1983, p. 77, no. 12, illustrated.
Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Peter Blake: Retrospektive, April - June 1983, p. 75, no. 11, illustrated.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Pippa Jacomb Director, Head of Day Sale

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Lot Essay

In the 1983 Tate Gallery catalogue, the entry for Guardia Civil reads, 'Painted from life. The sitter was the local policeman in the village near Tarragona [near Barcelona] where Blake stayed with Joe Tilson, during his travels on his Leverhulme Scholarship to study popular arts. The policeman would pause each day for half an hour while Blake painted' (see exhibition catalogue, Peter Blake, London, Tate Gallery, 1983, p. 77).

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