SOLD


Robert Lyon:
Merrygoround, early 1920's
Framed (ref: 1366)
Artist's Proof, woodcut, inscribed 9a and 13 on the reverse
In a glazed square section gilded oak frame with brown flat inner slip,
11 1/2 x 9 in. (29 x 23.5 cm.)

Slightly foxed and tired at edges

Tags: Robert Lyon woodcut children Highlights of 20/21 Art Fair leisure Golden Generation RCA

Provenance: acquired directly from Robert Lyon family, circa 1980; private collection.

Robert Lyon trained at the Royal College of Art in the early 1920's before going on to win a scholarship to the British School at Rome.  For eight years from 1934 Lyon was tutor to the Ashington Group of spare-time Northumberland miner artists, one of the most remarkable of such groups to emerge in the inter-war years.  This woodcut, which appears to have never been printed as an edition, is clearly inspired by Gertler's iconic Merry-Go-Round, 1916.  The figures on the carousel are here replaced by miners, adding resonance to an already politicized image.