Self-portrait with a pipe (1), 1913

Henri Gaudier-Brzeska was a very prolific draughtsman: he sketched restlessly in drawing classes, museums, parks and the streets of London. In 1911 he wrote about these trips: “I always have about ten ‘kids’ around me when I am drawing. They are obviously astonished at my behaviour … I work in a style which intrigues them a great deal, because I do not draw; instead of drawing the figure straight away, as they are used to seeing everyone else do, I draw square boxes altering the size, one for each plane, and then suddenly by drawing a few lines between the boxes they can see the figure appear.” This account dovetails with Gaudier’s definition of modern sculpture published in the Vorticist journal Blast in 1914: “Sculptural energy is the mountain. Sculptural feeling is the appreciation of masses in relation. Sculptural ability is the defining of these masses by planes.”

Gaudier regularly used drawing as a means to explore ideas for his three-dimensional work. Portraiture and self-portraiture were one of his preferred genres for technical experimentation throughout his brief career. At the time he made the three Self-Portraits with a Pipe (1913), Gaudier was considering a shift from modelling in plaster to direct carving in stone, and exploring formal languages ranging from Post-Impressionism to Fauvism, Futurism and Cubism (Picasso and Matisse’s work had been recently exhibited in London).

These portraits offer a fascinating synthesis of caricature, realism and geometric abstraction, showing the progressive transformation from a naturalistic to an almost Cubist image, with characteristic faceting of masses, crisp geometry and careful hatchings and striations. Gaudier self-consciously announces himself as an avant-garde artist, an indication of his increasing confidence and ambition by 1913. His bowler hat, at a jaunty angle, and pipe clenched between his teeth display his contempt for the “bloody bourgeois” of late Edwardian society.

Provenance: Sophie Brzeska’s Estate; purchased by H.S. (Jim) Ede from the Treasury, 1927.