Bernard Dunstan RA PPRWA (1920-2017) - Women in Negligee, pastel, 1981

Bernard Dunstan RA PPRWA

Women in Negligee

19.7 x 21 cm -  7 3/4 x 8 1/4 in

38 x 38 cm – 15 x 15 in (Frame)

Signed and dated

A beautifully well-proportioned example of Bernard Dunstan’s draughtsmanship in pastel. The sitter is most likely his wife and fellow artist and Royal Academician Diana Armfield RA. As noted in the Guardian newspaper obituary from 2017, ‘He famously painted or sketched her nearly every morning for over 50 years, often creating "two-minute" nude studies that served as the basis for intimate, daily-life paintings.’ This is likely an example of those early morning sketches.

Bernard Dunstan was the longest serving member of the Royal Academy until his death in 2017. A devoted student of the impressionists and their successors, we can see the obvious influence of Degas, Bonnard, Renoir and Vuillard in this striking nude study, a lighter more sensual artist than Sickert, his art none the less shows the British take on impressionism in full flourish. His works are represented in the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Collection, Windsor, and the Museum of London.

Provenance

Exhibited at New Grafton Gallery 25th June 1981

Christies 20th-century British Art Sale 24^th November 2005

Private Owner

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