Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/wyndham-lewis-1502" aria-label="More by Wyndham Lewis" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Wyndham Lewis</a>
Ezra Pound
Purchased 1939
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ashtray
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interiors
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Pound, Ezra
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<p>In 1914 Wyndham Lewis and the American poet and critic Ezra Pound together promoted Vorticism, an avant-garde movement celebrating the machine age and the artist as a mystic, inventor, and organiser of forms. Both men were controversial writers. Their relationship was at times difficult: in the 1920s Lewis had been very critical of Pound's poetry. But Lewis set aside their differences to produce this tribute to his friend. It is one of a series of portraits Lewis began in 1938, which also included T.S. Eliot and Stephen Spender. The composition is dominated by the diagonal lines of Pound's reclining body and the newspapers, which are offset by the strong verticals on the left.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
21 September 2001 – 7 July 2002
2002-07-07
21 September 2001 – 7 July 2002
2002-07-07
2001-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-09-21
Wyndham Lewis
Collection based display
1 March 2005 – 1 March 2005
2005-03-01
1 March 2005 – 1 March 2005
2005-03-01
2005-03-01
Olympia Exhibition Centre (London, UK)
2005-03-01
Spring Exhibition
Loan-out
3 July 2008 – 19 October 2008
2008-10-19
3 July 2008 – 19 October 2008
2008-10-19
2008-07-03
National Portrait Gallery (London, UK)
http://www.npg.org.uk
2008-07-03
Wyndham Lewis Portraits
Loan-out
5 February 2010 – 16 May 2010
2010-05-16
5 February 2010 – 16 May 2010
2010-05-16
2010-02-05
Fundación Juan March (Madrid, Spain)
http://www.march.es
2010-02-05
Wyndham Lewis
Loan-out
22 September 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
22 September 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2012-09-22
Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (Rovereto, Italy)
http://www.mart.trento.it/
2012-09-22
Fin de Race. Between Avant-garde and Decadence
Loan-out
27 January 2018 – 18 November 2018
2018-11-18
27 January 2018 – 20 May 2018
2018-05-20
2018-01-27
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
15 September 2018 – 18 November 2018
2018-11-18
2018-09-15
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum (Coventry, UK)
http://www.theherbert.org
2018-01-27
A Journey to The Waste Land
Loan-out
Ezra Pound
support: 762 × 1016 mm
Purchased 1939
<p>In 1914 Wyndham Lewis and the American poet and critic Ezra Pound together promoted <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/v/vorticism" title="Glossary definition for 'Vorticism'"><span>Vorticism</span></a>, an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/avant-garde" title="Glossary definition for 'Avant-garde'"><span>avant-garde</span></a> movement celebrating the machine age and the artist as a mystic, inventor, and organiser of forms. Both men were controversial writers. Their relationship was at times difficult: in the 1920s Lewis had been very critical of Pound's poetry. But Lewis set aside their differences to produce this tribute to his friend. It is one of a series 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/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a> Lewis began in 1938, which also included T.S. Eliot and Stephen Spender. 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/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> is dominated by the diagonal lines of Pound's reclining body and the newspapers, which are offset by the strong verticals on the left.</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05042</b> EZRA POUND 1939
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Canvas, 30×40 (76·5×102).
<br/>Purchased from the artist (Knapping Fund) 1939.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Tate Gallery, July–August 1956 (151).
<br/><i>Lit:</i>
Handley-Read, 1951, pp.45, 72, 99–100, repr. pl.47; <i>Letters</i>, 1963, p.390.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> R. H. Wilenski, <i>English Painting</i>, 3rd ed., 1954, pl.164<i>c</i>; John Rothenstein, <i>The Tate Gallery</i>, 1958, p.109.</p>
<p>A <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> sketch for the complete <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>, inscribed ‘Wyndham Lewis 1938’, is in the possession of Omar Pound. There is a crayon study of the head dated 1938 in the possession of Wyndham T. Vint (repr. Handley-Read, 1951, pl.46), and another dated 1939 in the City Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent.</p>
<p>Ezra Pound, the American poet and critic, first became friendly with Lewis in 1909 or 1910 and played an important part in 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/v/vorticism" title="Glossary definition for 'Vorticism'"><span>Vorticist</span></a> movement. He was one of those who signed the repudiation of 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/f/futurism" title="Glossary definition for 'Futurism'"><span>Futurist</span></a> manifesto, <i>Vital English Art</i>, and the Vorticist manifesto in <i>Blast</i>, No.1. He contributed the statement ‘Vortex Pound’ to <i>Blast</i>, No.1, and ‘Chronicles’ and some poems to <i>Blast</i>, No.2. In his article, ‘Affirmation, Analysis of this Decade’ in the <i>New Age</i>, 11 February 1915, he cited Lewis, Gaudier-Brzeska and Wadsworth and he published an appreciation of Gaudier-Brzeska, whom he introduced to Lewis, in the <i>New Age</i>, 4 February 1915. It was through Pound that Lewis also met T. S. Eliot and, in Paris, James Joyce. (See Lewis, <i>Blasting and Bombardiering</i>, 1937, pp.208–9 and 277–94, and <i>Rude Assignment</i>, 1950, pp.121–2.)</p>
<p>An early full-face three-quarter-length <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> by Wyndham Lewis of Pound standing created a sensation in the Goupil Gallery <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/salon" title="Glossary definition for 'Salon'"><span>Salon</span></a> of 1919 (96; repr. Charles Marriot, <i>Modern Movements in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>Painting</span></a></i>, 1920, facing p.256, and Frank Rutter, <i>Evolution in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/modernism" title="Glossary definition for 'Modernism'"><span>Modern Art</span></a></i>, 1926, pl.32); it is now lost. For three earlier <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 the sitter, made in 1921, see Handley-Read, 1951, p.99; another example, of 1920, is repr. <i>Letters</i>, 1963, pl.8.</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
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-06T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions actions: processes and functions adults ashtray bowl chair critic domestic fine arts and music furnishings individuals: male interiors literary man miscellaneous named individuals newspaper - non-specific objects painting paperweight people poet portraits Pound, Ezra reading, writing, printed matter sitting sleeping studio table vessels and containers work and occupations workspaces