Godfrey Miller (Godfrey Clive Miller) (1893-1964)

Slade figure study of a female torso, c. 1930–34

Stamped with John Henshaw’s studio stamp of Godfrey Miller’s estate and numbered “S113”

Pencil on buff coloured paper

Size: (image within the window mount) 9.7 x 6.9 cm; (frame) 40.5 x 34.8 cm.

Condition: the sheet has a pinhole on the right side of the figure; there is a bubble in the Perspex/acrylic sheet; the timber frame is unvarnished and has minor signs of its age (i.e. yellow oxidisation, insect specks and dustiness) and the backing sheet should be replaced.

I am selling this framed very early and rare drawing (in the sense that Miller destroyed/culled most of his early drawings) for AU$1200 including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this original and very early drawing by one of Australia’s most famous artists, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Although this early drawing by Godfrey Miller is an academic study executed from direct observation during a life class, it has many of the hallmarks of his mature works. By this I mean that the line work shows Miller visually searching for the structure of the figure’s form in a way that a blind person might “feel” the figure’s surface tensions, curves, soft and hard spots. This approach is often described—at least by me—as a haptic approach as opposed to a strictly visual one. What is especially lovely to see is the way that Miller phrases his lines by varying the pressure on the pencil so that the lines flow in the pictorial space of the image or punctuate important landmarks like the figure’s navel.