Sam Haile (British, 1909-1948) Reclining Nude 11.8 x 30.6 cm. (4 5/8 x 12 1/8 in.)

Sam Haile (British, 1909-1948) Reclining Nude signed and dated 'Haile xii 39' (lower right) gouache 11.8 x 30.6 cm. (4 5/8 x 12 1/8 in.) Footnotes: Provenance Marianne Haile Private Collection, U.K. Exhibited London, Birch & Conran, Sam Haile Retrospective, 1987 Cambridge, Jesus College (on loan) Thomas Samuel Haile is a lesser-known surrealist on account of his early death in a car accident in Devon in 1948. His view of humankind has always been tinged with an aggressive pessimism. His Reclining Nude is no exception, rooted as it is in his obsession with suffering. But underneath this, there is, paradoxically, a force which counteracts and denies it, a belief in the underlying 'life of the imagination'. The body is elongated, drawn out, organs are no longer in place and arranged on a line, the feminine sex is reduced to a triangle and the nude is being sucked at by a kind of child or succubus reduced to four emaciated members and a laughing face sucking a uterus-like form, as in a reversed birth. The format itself insists on that chaotic composition and on the pressure exerting itself on the figure and the two-dimensionality helps vision become primary again. The nude, a traditional theme in painting (and sculpture) is ironically presented through a process of distortion, simplification and almost de-humanization, as the prey to that process. Haile, a radical Left-wing figure in the ranks of the English surrealists fought all his life against racism, the exploitation of the individual and the degradation of human values. We are grateful to Professor Michel Remy for compiling this catalogue entry. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing