Vintage Brit Figure Models Art

Then and Now
Vintage Brit Figure Models
Art Guide from a Book

1
The Bookstore Window
Views of London - Charing Cross Road
Wolfgang Suschitzky (1912-2016) Austrian
Gelatin silver prints, 19" x 20" (w x h), 1935 / 1989

Sothebys, London 2018 auction sold

Wolfgang Suschitzky, B.S.C. (British Society of Cinematographers) (1912-2016), was an Austrian-born British documentary photographer, as well as a cinematographer known for his work on Mike Hodges' 1971 film, Get Carter.

This photo is from his book:
Charing Cross Road in the Thirties
Photographs by Wolf Suschitzky
The Photo Library 9
Dirk Nishen Publishing, London, UK, 1989

From the "introduction" and various sources:
"Charing Cross Road in the 1930s was far from being a respectable street. It was a nighttime pleasure street, a promiscuous mix of activities. Foyles was the bookstore, a fabled place, "the largest bookstore in the world," all five floors. Also on Charing Cross Road in the 1930s was Zwemmer's, the first serious art booksellers in England, plus the second-hand books shops, the staple of the Charing Cross trade. Pornography was a feature of the Charring Cross trade, the goods sometimes secreted in underground showrooms. Marks, Poole's and Josephs made a specialty of art nudes."
        A brass plaque on the stone pilaster facing Charing Cross Road commemorates the former bookshop, Foyles, and Helen Hanff's charming classic long-distance love affair novel, has the bookstore as a central character in the noted book (1970) and film (1987), starring Ann Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins, 84 Charring Cross Road. In the Harry Potter books, the Leaky Cauldron pub is on Charing Cross Road. Author J.K. Rowling chose this road because "it is famous for its bookshops, both modern and antiquarian. This is why I wanted it to be the place where those in the know go to enter a different world."

Looking at the book covers on display in
the windows led to this book:

2
Studies of the Human Figure
with Some Notes on Drawing and Anatomy
G.M, Ellwood and F. R. Yerbury
B. T. Batsford Ltd., London, 1919

3
This copy was acquisitioned by the
Boston Medical Library, January 1927
See and flip though
Studies of the Human Figure online HERE

I painted two quick sketches from the book's suggested plates.

4

XLVI, Model No. 5, "Waking," a beautiful recumbent pose, with useful detail in the foreshortening of the right arm and thighs, and the finely modelled left arm and shoulder. A painter's or moddler's subject, and an interesting anatomical study.

5
XLVI (Plate 66), Model No. 5
7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for
light fastness and permanence, and Uniball
waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs.
Fabriano Artistico cold press rough
100% cotton extra white
watercolor paper,
framed,
$150

6

XXXVIII, Model No. 1, A wonderful pose expressive of hope and vitality. The foreshortening is extremely well caught, and an anatomical rendering of the pose is an interesting task.

7
XXXVIII (Plate 39), Model No. 1
7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for
light fastness and permanence, and Uniball
waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs.
Fabriano Artistico cold press rough
100% cotton extra white
watercolor paper,
framed,
$150.