Oil and tempera on board, 1938. 195x345 mm; 7 3/4x13 5/8 inches. Signed and dated "Cassis 16-9-38" in pencil, lower right recto, and signed, titled and dated in pencil, verso. Ex-collection private collection, London.
The current work relates to Hayter's prints for the Numancia<> series, a group of 6 prints (5 of which were completed) commissioned by Ambroise Vollard (Black/Moorhead 106, 110, 112, 113 and 128). The project was abandoned due to Vollard's untimely death in an auto accident and Hayter's prints were issued individually instead.
This was a watershed year in the artist's career, the culmination of his work at Atelier 17 in Paris with such modern luminaries as Miró, Ernst, Tanguy and Giacometti and the year before he arrived in New York to re-establish Atelier 17 and offer his experience to emerging modern American artists like Rothko, Motherwell, Pollock and De Kooning.
