Nicolas Ghika (1906-1994)
Nicolas Ghika (1906-1994)

The Assault

细节
Nicolas Ghika (1906-1994)
The Assault
oil on canvas
24 3/8 x 27 3/8 in. (61.9 x 69.5 cm.)
Painted in 1946
来源
Lord & Lady Norton, London, by whom acquired directly from the artist and thence by descent to the present owner.
出版
T.P. Spiteris, 'Greek Taste in Picture Collecting' in The Studio, vol. CLV, no. 779, February 1958 (illustrated p. 33).
S. Spender & P.L. Fermor, Ghika, Paintings, Drawings, Sculpture, London, 1964 (illustrated pl. 3).
展览
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Ghika, June - July 1968, no. 8.

拍品专文

Nicholas Pestalis-Diomidis has confirmed the authenticity of this painting.


The Assault comes from the collection of Lady Noel E. Norton (1891-1972), a British collector and art dealer who usually went by the nickname of 'Peter' Norton. From 1946 to 1951, her husband Sir Clifford Norton was the British ambassador in Athens, and there Lady Norton formed a close and lasting friendship with Ghika; their correspondence can be found in the Tate Britain archive. Peter Norton was by that stage a well-established and passionate art collector. In 1936 she had opened the first modern art gallery in London (called The London Gallery, in Cork Street), helped by Roland Penrose. There she exhibited works by Klee, Kandinsky, Leger, Magritte, Ernst, and Moore, amongst others. During World War Two, her husband's diplomatic career took her away from London, so she handed the gallery over to E.L.T. Mesens. But she continued to support, collect and encourage artists all her life, and during her later years in Greece, she particularly championed Ghika's work, and they became great friends. She bought a number of his paintings for her collection, which have remained in her family since her death.