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Lot Essay
Wood first visited Monte Carlo in 1924, most likely when he and his friend Tony Gandarillas were staying at Le Canadel in August of that year. They would take the boat around the coast as the roads were poor and the trains infrequent, and by October were staying in Villefranche-sur-Mer near Nice, where their friend Jean Cocteau was based.
Wood returned to Monte Carlo in the spring of 1925 with Gandarillas, and wrote to his mother of his enjoyment at being there: 'All my friends the artists are here. Picasso is here and I see a lot of him which gives me more pleasure than anything. He is a delightful person and I think he likes me. He is a great genius and the Leonardo of today' (quoted in R. Ingleby, Christopher Wood An English Painter, London, 1995, p. 103). Wood had previously met Picasso, but this sustained period of time with him provided Wood with a new source of inspiration which soon found its way into his work. Monte Carlo also exposed him to Diaghilev and the Russian Ballet, which he described as 'the most agreeable spectacle in the world' (ibid).
We are very grateful to Robert Upstone for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry. Robert Upstone is the author of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Christopher Wood.
Wood returned to Monte Carlo in the spring of 1925 with Gandarillas, and wrote to his mother of his enjoyment at being there: 'All my friends the artists are here. Picasso is here and I see a lot of him which gives me more pleasure than anything. He is a delightful person and I think he likes me. He is a great genius and the Leonardo of today' (quoted in R. Ingleby, Christopher Wood An English Painter, London, 1995, p. 103). Wood had previously met Picasso, but this sustained period of time with him provided Wood with a new source of inspiration which soon found its way into his work. Monte Carlo also exposed him to Diaghilev and the Russian Ballet, which he described as 'the most agreeable spectacle in the world' (ibid).
We are very grateful to Robert Upstone for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry. Robert Upstone is the author of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Christopher Wood.