Sold for: $40,250

PROVENANCE
de Vooght Galleries Ltd., Vancouver
Private Collection, Vancouver
By descent to the present Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Michael Parkin and Denise Hooker, Sybil Andrews, Parkin Gallery, 1980, reproduced on the cover
Peter White, Sybil Andrews, Glenbow Museum, 1982, reproduced pages 34 and 55
Stephen Coppel, Linocuts of the Machine Age, 1995, reproduced page 112, catalogue #SA 24
Gordon Samuel and Nicola Penny, The Cutting Edge of Modernity: Linocuts of the Grosvenor School, 2002, reproduced page 36
Clifford S. Ackley, editor, Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints, 1914 - 1939, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2008, essay by Thomas E. Rassieur, page 115, reproduced page 119
Hana Leaper, Sybil Andrews Linocuts: A Complete Catalogue, 2015, reproduced page 71

EXHIBITED
Parkin Gallery, London, Sybil Andrews, October 22 - November 15, 1980, same image, catalogue #38
Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Sybil Andrews, 1982, same image, catalogue #24
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Rhythms of Modern Life: British Prints, 1914 - 1939, January 3 - June 1, 2008, traveling to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, same image, catalogue #61

Sybil Andrews shared a studio with Cyril Power in London from 1930 to 1938. In 1930, Power produced a linocut entitled The Eight (figure 1), of a rowing team that was part of a group of racing sculls competing in trials for the annual Head of the River Race on the River Thames. Power observed these trials from Hammersmith Bridge near their studio. By 1930, this regatta had grown so popular that 77 crews participated. This fine print from 1933 is Andrews’s depiction of a team returning their boat to its housing.

Sport was an important subject for the Grosvenor School of printmakers, to which both artists belonged. The use of this subject reflected the social awareness of the time, as participation in and observation of sport grew in popularity. As Thomas Rassieur writes, “Utopian idealists saw the human body as a perfectible machine, and fashions favoured sleek physiques.” Bringing in the Boat incorporates this concept of the body as machine, as Andrews removes distinguishing features from the rowers, rendering their bodies as uniform, muscular and strong. Their hands are stylized, clamping on to the boat like tools. Rassieur comments, “The spirit of unified teamwork expressed in the print echoes the mass demonstrations of synchronized athletic prowess that we now associate with propaganda films of the interwar period.” In this strong image, Andrews depicts four of the eight rowers as if in black shadow – a choice that echoes the dark, angular profile of this specialized racing boat with its distinctive armatures. Repetition of form adds to the perception of movement, as though the men are moving the boat in lockstep. Vigorous and forceful as an image, Bringing in the Boat embodies the social ideal of collaboration and equality in sport, and promotes the attainment of fitness and health.

Early impressions are on buff oriental laid tissue; later printings are usually on thicker oriental laid or fibrous paper. This is a very fine impression on oriental laid paper.

Please note: the full sheet with margins measures 15 x 11 5/8 inches.

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