Notes

EXHIBITED London, Gillian Jason Gallery, Painters in the Theatre, November - December 1988, no. 62. London, Redfern Gallery, Franciszka Themerson (1907-1988): Figures in Space; Paintings and Drawings, June - July 1993, no. 2. Conditions of sale Brought to you by Pippa Jacomb Director, Head of Day Sale PJACOMB@CHRISTIES.COM +44 (0) 20 7389 2293 LOT ESSAY Whose head is it? one wonders. Franciszka Themerson painted very few portrait heads that can be identified. These include herself and her sister Maryla, her husband Stefan. Most of the other heads represent a mood, a question, or a puzzle, and the title doesn’t mention the sitter, either real or imagined. In most of the paintings by Franciszka Themerson, the head is an instrument of thoughts and emotions. It becomes a part of the architecture of the painting, and in a single painting there could be several heads, sometimes more, even many, some almost invisible. The Gigantic Head is an exception. The head emerges from the white background which continues to add pictorial elements on either side of the head, whether they be earrings or hair. The head, staring straight at us is looking anxiously at the outside world. I have always thought of as that of a woman, however that is not obvious. This is probably the first painting in which Franciszka used the combination of oil and metallic paint on canvas, which probably covered, to begin with, a much greater area. The white surround came later, as did the features drawn in dark blue paint on the gold shape of the face. As a solitary large painting of a head, it is both important and rare in her total oeuvre. Furthermore, there is no other work that suggests a pathway towards it. Franciszka Themerson never revealed who the sitter was, or indeed if there was one. We are very grateful to Jasia Reichardt for preparing this catalogue entry.