Three Trevor Willoughby Drawings & One Print – Female Figures (Auction 2026-06-05, Lot 24D)

$385.50

A quartet of works on paper by the English figurative artist Trevor Willoughby (1926-1995), each devoted to the study of the female form. The lithograph, dated 1980 and pulled in an edition of seventy-five, depicts a dancer caught mid-stretch, her elongated limbs articulated in fluid contour. It is signed, dated, and numbered 5/75 beneath the plate, and bears a personal dedication beginning “For Ned,” a gift from Willoughby to the American figurative painter Ned Jacob. The three accompanying charcoal drawings, executed in 1984 and 1985, gather a small repertoire of poses: a standing woman in a long skirt, her stance casual yet self-possessed; a seated nude bent forward over folded knees; and a seated figure viewed from behind, her shoulders and back rendered with economical, searching line. Each drawing is signed and dated at lower right. Willoughby, trained at the Royal Academy Schools and known for his commitment to life drawing and the dancing figure, distilled the body to its essential rhythms through a confident, unhurried hand. Together the four sheets form a compact portrait of his draftsmanship at full maturity, and carry the additional interest of the artist’s friendship with a fellow devotee of the figure across the Atlantic.

Provenance: private Santa Fe, New Mexico USA collection; ex-private Maine, USA collection

Condition: Very Good. Drawing on darker paper has scribble of pink ink in upper right. Some tattering to edges of paper from being removed from sketchbook. Otherwise, in very good overall condition with clear imagery. All signed and dated.