Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (French, 1891-1915)Gorilla
numbered '4/7' and stamped with foundry stamp (lower right)
bronze with a black patina
51.5cm (20 1/4in) long
Conceived in 1912, the present work is number 4 from the edition of 7 cast before 1973 by Morris Singer Foundry, of a number of known casts注脚Provenance
Sale; Christie's, London, 9 March 1984, lot 86, where acquired by the family of the present owner, and thence by descent
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
London, Leicester Galleries, Memorial Exhibition, May-June 1918, cat.no.33 (plaster version)
London, Zwemmer Gallery, Drawings and Sculpture by Some Contemporary Sculptors, 1930, cat.no.47 (as Chimpanzee, plaster version)
London, Zwemmer Gallery, Christmas Exhibition, 1938-9, cat.no.1 (another cast)
Leeds, Temple Newsam, Roy de Maistre, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, 1943, cat.no.58 (another cast)

Literature
Horace Brodzky, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, 1891-1915, Faber & Faber Ltd, London, 1933, (ill. opp.p.117, plaster version)
Mervyn Levy, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska: Drawings and Sculpture, New York, 1965, no.69, p.29 (another cast)
Roger Cole, Burning to Speak: The Life and Art of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Phaidon, Oxford, 1978, cat.no.16, (ill. p.63, another cast)
Evelyn Silber, Gaudier-Brzeska, Life and Art, Thames and Hudson, London, 1996, cat.no.28, (ill.b&w pl.27, another cast)

Gaudier-Brzeska made a number of visits to London Zoo in 1912, facilitated by a gift from Lovat Fraser of a book of entry passes to the zoo, which were given as a mark of friendship and in return for his help in the decoration of his studio. These trips inspired numerous studies in pen and crayon of the animals, which then served as the basis for sculptures such as the present work.