MARTIN, Frank (1921-2005) ~ Nude drawings of Jennifer Knight-Barnard. Made in Chelsea, London from Life during 1955, 1956 & 1957.
17 pencil and charcoal drawings, one with wash and 4 with watercolour on 13 different sheets, all signed and with a handmade title page by Frank Martin including a photograph of the model Jennifer Knight-Barnard and housed in a standard art portfolio. All drawings are around 30 x 40 cms.
Together with 7 larger pencil and charcoal drawings all signed by the artist of the same model at the same time, all filling paper from 57 x 38 to 63 x 45 cms. One drawing with a few tears at the edges but not affecting the image.
These accomplished original life drawings of one model by Frank Martin were all done by him at his studio in the ‘Italian Village’, an artist’s studio colony set up before the war in Fulham just by Stamford Bridge. They were all of one of his favourite models in the 1950s Jennifer Knight-Barnard.
He had made a maquette of a title page in pen and ink with an original photograph of the model on the front for a projected book ‘Twenty-Six Drawings of Jennifer Knight-Bernard’. The project remained unfinished and the artist gave the drawings to a friend and patron towards the end of his life.