Signed and dated L.r.: D.Bomberg/14 March 1909/Self

Pencil, 16.5 by 11.5 cm

Provenance: the artist’s family; Gillian Jason Gallery, where acquired by the present owner

Exhibited: Fischer Fine Art, London, David Bomberg, A Tribute to Lilian Bomberg, March-April 1985, no.2; Tate, David Bomberg, 17 Feb-8 May 1988, no.2

This remarkable and supremely confident early Bomberg self portrait dates from the artist’s time studying at Westminster School of Art, a date when his teacher there, Walter Sickert was having a notable influence on his work. His work would transform following his move to the Slade School of Art in 1911 and the impact the Italian Futurist exhibition in London would have on his work in 1912. In his short period under the spell of more traditional artistic styles he would prove the equal of his other great Slade contemporaries, including Stanley Spencer, C.R.W.Nevinson and Mark Gertler and he won the Tonks prize for his drawing there in 1911. This portrait has something of the coming-of-age quality seen in self portraits by many of those contemporaries at around the same date.