?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
MUIRHEAD BONE Piccadilly Circus.
Drypoint, 1915. 300x380 mm; 11 7/8x15 inches, wide margins. Sixth state (of 6). Edition of 105. Signed in pencil, lower right. A superb, richly-inked impression with brilliant contrasts.
In this dramatic night view, made during World War I, Bone (1876-1953) skillfully captured the bustling crowds and traffic moving about Piccadilly Circus, a circular road junction and major public space bordered by stately buildings in London's West End. At the far left, the artist depicted the dominant ediface of the County Fire Office (side view). Search lights illuminate the pitch black sky; Bone rendered the sky by drawing a dense network of lines to hold the ink. Street lamps (particularly the tall one at right) cast light beams downward, as their tops were shaded to be in accordance with war regulations. Visible in silhouette is the popular Shaftsbury Memorial Fountain, graced by the statue of Eros (or Anteros) by Alfred Gilbert. When this print was first exhibited in 1915, it was sold in aid of the Belgian Relief Fund; now it is regarded as one of Bone's masterpieces. Dodgson 332.
