Ink on paper
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/henri-gaudier-brzeska-1143" aria-label="More by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Henri Gaudier-Brzeska</a>
A Wolf
Presented by Miss Sophie Brzeska 1918
animals: mammals
wolf
<p>The artist Claude Lovat Fraser supported Gaudier in several ways, including the gift of tickets to Regents Park Zoo in London. There Gaudier spent his weekends sketching the animals so quickly that  the ink was often still wet as he turned  the page. With a few elegant lines and  no shading, he managed to convey  three-dimensional form and capture  a momentary view of a beast in movement. Resting or alert, standing or pacing,  each animal's unique personality  is encapsulated in these drawings.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
paper unique ink
15 July 2002 – 16 March 2003
2003-03-16
15 July 2002 – 16 March 2003
2003-03-16
2002-07-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-15
Henri Gaudier Brzeska
Collection based display
20 May 2024
20 May 2024
2024-05-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2024-05-20
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
Collection based display
A Wolf
support: 240 × 385 mm
frame: 350 × 514 × 20 mm
Presented by Miss Sophie Brzeska 1918
<p>
The artist Claude Lovat Fraser supported Gaudier in several ways, including the gift of tickets to Regents Park Zoo in London. There Gaudier spent his weekends sketching the animals so quickly that <br/>
the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Ink'"><span>ink</span></a> was often still wet as he turned <br/>
the page. With a few elegant lines and <br/>
no shading, he managed to convey <br/>
three-dimensional <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/form" title="Glossary definition for 'Form'"><span>form</span></a> and capture <br/>
a momentary view of a beast in movement. Resting or alert, standing or pacing, <br/>
each animal's unique personality <br/>
is encapsulated in these <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a>.</p>
Display caption
2004-09-08T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N03339</b> A WOLF 1913
<br/> 
<br/>Inscr. ‘Henri Gaudier Brzeska 1913’ b.r.
<br/>Pen and ink, 9 3/4×13 1/2 (25×34).
<br/>Presented by Miss Sophie Brzeska 1918.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Arts Council, 1956–7 (76).
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Ede, 1930, pl.59.</p>
<p>One of a number of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> of wild animals and birds made <i>c.</i>
1912–13. Gaudier (in Ede, 1930, pp.200–1) lists ‘Nombreux dessins de nus, animaux à la plume’ under the year 1913, but in a letter of as early as 17 November 1912 (Ede, 1930, p.138) he mentions making drawings at the London Zoo. Later a visit to Arundel Park in the autumn of 1913 inspired a number of drawings of deer. The style of these outline drawings should be compared with Gaudier's early naturalistic studies of stuffed animals such as those of 1907 and 1908 reproduced in Ede, 1930, pls. 5 and 7. The earlier outline drawings seem to have been those with a slightly thicker line than the others (see Pound, 1916, p.163).</p>
<p>Drawings such as these, though made for their own sake, often served as the starting-point for works of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a>, e.g. <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gaudier-brzeska-a-dog-n03341" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03341</span></a> and <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gaudier-brzeska-studies-of-birds-n04529" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N04529</span></a>.</p>
<p>A large number of drawings were included in the Memorial exhibition at the Leicester Galleries, 1918, but they were not separately listed or described.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-05T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
animals: mammals wolf