1911
25 x 11 1/2 inches (sight)
63.5 x 28.6 cm (sight)
Graphite and black chalk on paper

Provenance:

with Anthony D'Offay Gallery, London by 1980
Estate of Peter Day Toronto [Artdealer]

SOLD Private Collection, Toronto

Commentary:

This is possibly a working drawing for Gill's sculpture Small Boy Holding Panel, 1911 cited as #17 in the catalogue Raisonne by Judith Collins ERIC GILL, THE SCULPTURE, London, 1988 (illustrated page 50).

It is related to other works of that moment: CUPID and A COCKY KID (catalogue #13 & #14 Raisonne).

At this time Gill was working closely with Jacob Epstein, whose Hoptonwood stone relief of a SUN GOD, 1910 in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, bears an uncanny resemblance to this sketch. (Refer to E. Silber, THE SCULPTURE OF EPSTEIN, Oxford, 1986, catalogue #26, page 127).