(Streatham, London 1903–1980 Kent)
Mantis, 1963, signed and dated; monogrammed, titled and dated on the reverse, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm, framed

This work is registered in the Archivio delle Opere di Graham Sutherland curated by the Galleria Ruggerini & Zonca, Milan and is accompanied by a photo certificate of authenticity

Provenance:
Paul Rosenberg & Co. Gallery, New York (label on the reverse)
Galleria Gissi, Turin (label on the reverse, faded)
Galleria La Bussola, Turin (label on the reverse)
Galleria Il Fauno, Turin (label on the reverse)
M. Carafoli Bozzalla Collection, Turin (inscribed on the reverse)
Galleria Ruggerini & Zonca, Milan (stamp on the certificate, dated 1993)
Galleria Farsetti Arte, Prato
European Private Collection (acquired from the above by the present owner)

Exhibited:
Locarno, Graham Sutherland, PInacoteca Comunale Casa Rusca, 2 April – 29 May 1988, exh. cat. p. 70
Antibes, Graham Sutherland, une rétrospective, Musée Picasso, 29 June – 11 October 1998, exh. cat. p. 77, no. 136, with ill.

Literature:
F. Arcangeli (ed.), Graham Sutherland, F. lli Fabbri Editore, Milan, 1973, no. 138, with ill.

Serenity is, for Sutherland, only apparent or short-lived; he himself soon discovers that beneath the outward appearance of a nature so full of sounds and colours that it might show off his own joie de vivre, lies a tough struggle for survival. Plants and animals alike are equipped with instruments of offence and defence; they protect themselves with a kind of armour, often made of hard scales, they take on a ferocious appearance or arm themselves with spikes and quills.

These observations gave rise to his gigantic insects, such as Mantis of 1953 (…) creatures that belong to the animal world but that his anthropomorphic vision transforms into hybrids, suspended between human, vegetable, animal and mechanical dimension, metamorphic forms of universal life, a ‛bestiary’ that reminds us of the immense vitality of a nature we will not escape. (Arcangeli 1973: 6)