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George Weissbort
1974 oil painting still life of squashes and grapes by British George Weissbort

About the Item

George Weissbort (Belgian / British, 1928 – 2013) A SQUASH, A BUNCH OF GRAPES AND A GLASS OF WINE Oil on canvasboard 18.1/8 x 22 in. (46 x 55.7 cm.) George Weissbort was born in Brussels in 1928. Seven years later his family moved to London, Polish Jews fleeing the turmoil of Europe at the time of the rise of antisemitism. Throughout his childhood he was fascinated by drawing, and during the war, at Oxford, his friend Joseph Horovitz - whose father had brought the Phaidon Press from Vienna to England - introduced him to Arthur Segal, an “experimental” painter who had come to naturalism late in his career. Segal’s credo was simple: Nature (optical realism) is wonderful; the nearer you approach its beauty, the more beautiful your paintings become. After early flirtation with the “modern art” of the ‘40’s, Weissbort gradually realized that Segal’s credo was nearly enough to inspire him for the rest of his life. The second pillar of his studies was the work of the Old Masters. It was the late Bernard Meninsky, who taught life drawing at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London during the war, who transmitted this half of his credo to Weissbort. He was also tutored by Ruskin Spear and Rodrigo Mognihan in oil painting (possibly at the Royal college). He was a regular contributor to The Royal Academy and the Society of Portrait Painters each year and his work was regularly shown in one-man exhibitions in West End galleries such as Gallery Petit and Denise Yapp’s gallery and he had a retrospective at Chambers Gallery in 2006. He also participated in group shows at the Fine Arts Society. Starting with modern masters, like Cezanne and Matisse, Weissbort gradually moved backwards in time to his final models of inspiration - Mantegna, Titian, and Vermeer. Up until his death he worked unremittingly, inspired by nature and his exemplars, trying continuously to improve, exploring the infinite and strenuous worlds of line, shape, tone, form and colour. Much has been made in correspondence of George Weissbort’s technical abilities as an artist and all agree that he was a masterful painter born into a period when abstraction was seen as being more fashionable. However, true to his beliefs, he painted throughout his career beautifully observed objects whether they were still life or portrait studies. Observation was what he cared about, finding magic in compositions so that the whole became a beautiful celebration of life and nature. Although each composition was of his own making there was no attempt at forcing his own personality into it, more important was that it read in a literal sense as a whole. The critic Brian Sewell, considering him an important exponent of an earlier style at a time not widely receptive to it, described him as having "painted the right pictures at the wrong time". Perhaps times have changed. His determined and utterly conscious rejection of modernism and, indeed, of the modern world was reflected in the uncompromising traditionalism of his oil paintings. Paula Rago described him as “a truly honest artist who knows so much about painting” In the 21st century, to paint wholly in the spirit, under the sign, of the Old Masters was, for this lonely and obsessive painter, a radical project of artistic reclamation and psychic renewal. The deep content of his work, rather than its subject matter, was a yearning for stability, order and harmony, qualities of life and art he spent a lifetime seeking. The work was a projection of his very being.
  • Creator:
    George Weissbort (1928 - 2013, British)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 18.13 in (46.06 cm)Width: 22 in (55.88 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    A few minor surface scratches and abrasions but otherwise in good overall condition, recently revarnished. The frame is hand finished with foliate gilt composition, in a cream slip.
  • Gallery Location:
    Petworth, GB
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU540314827672

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