Provenance
Bought from Jim Ede, Kettle's Yard in 1970 by the previous owner.
Note: Before departing to fight in the First World War, Gaudier-Brzeska recorded the details of his sculptures in his List of Works, which included the entry 'Ornament torpille bronze cisele', which refers to the original cut brass version of the present work (sold to T.E. Hulme), as well as a plaster model of it. Jim Ede commissioned the artist and caster Michael Gillespie to create nine casts of the present work in 1968. Gillespie was a very talented bronze-caster, working to realise the work of artists including, among others, Elisabeth Frink and Jacob Epstein. Other casts of the present work are in the collections of the Tate, London (number 2/9), and Kettle's Yard, Cambridge.
Exhibitions
Possibly London, Allied Artists' Association, The London Salon: Seventh Year, 12th June - 2nd July 1914, cat. no.1346 (cut brass version);
Bielefeld, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska 1891-1915, 1969, cat. no.7, illustrated (another cast);
Treigny, Château de Ratilly, 1977, cat. no.22 (another cast, as Toy);
London, Mercury Gallery, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, 1891 - 1915, 25th September - 26th October 1991, cat. no.9, illustrated (another cast);
Orléans, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, June - September 1993, cat. no.42, illustrated p.119, with tour to Musée d'Art Moderne, Toulouse (another cast);
Paris, Centre Pompidou, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska dans les Collections du Centre Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Modern, 24th June - 14th September 2009, cat. no.63, illustrated, with tour to Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, Orléans (another cast, as Torpille).
Literature
Roger Cole, Burning to Speak: The Life and Art of Henri Gaudier Brzeska, Phaidon, Oxford, 1978, cat. no.63B, illustrated p.117 (another cast);
Evelyn Silber, Gaudier-Brzeska: Life and Art, London, Thames & Hudson, 1996, cat. no.80, p.270 (another cast).
POA