Notes

Portway is perhaps better known for his large abstract canvases of translucent colour fields; his figural works are rare to say the least. The present lot, with its solid, fleshy figures, immediately calls to mind Picasso's neo-classical phases, as well as other European, post-War examples by, amongst others, André Derain, Georges Braque and Henri Matisse, each of which reflected the prevailing interest in Le rappel à l'ordre (a return to order).

Provenance

The Collection of the Late Mrs Liselotte Hardebeck.