Jack Sassoon
| Artist Name | Jack Sassoon |
|---|---|
| Title | Death of the Young Men |
| Description | This very interesting Surrealist painting is by Jack Sassoon. One can only speculate whether Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967), the English war poet, writer and soldier, known to his men as 'Mad Jack' could possibly have painted this. The subject matter and title fit very well with Sassoon's world view and we havent found another Jack Sassoon. Who knows. Painted in 1938, just before the second World War, it is entitled verso Death of the Young Men. The composition is three young men dressed in black on the ground. The one lying prone has a red rose in his hand and has another young man sat with him. We can only see the head an arm held up of the third young man. Three figures in gas masks are approaching them, the first with a walking stick denoting his age perhaps. Behind a low wall in the background is an ominous black building with the moon and stars in the night sky above. The brushwork and vivid greens and the blue hue of the gas masks and night sky make the painting really zing. This is clearly a Surrealist anti war painting and carries a strong message. Signed with initials, dated 1938 and titled in the middle. |
| Provenance | Label with artist's name Jack Sassoon and title verso. |
| Medium | Oil on Canvas |
| Size | 30 x 25 inches |
| Frame | Housed in an ebonised frame, 38 inches by 33 inches, in good condition. |
| Condition | Good condition. |
| Biography | Siegfried Loraine Sassoon CBE MC (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front, he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches and satirized the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war. Sassoon became a focal point for dissent within the armed forces when he made a lone protest against the continuation of the war with his "Soldier's Declaration" of July 1917, which resulted in his being sent to the Craiglockhart War Hospital. During this period, Sassoon met and formed a friendship with Wilfred Owen, who was greatly influenced by him. Sassoon later won acclaim for his prose work, notably his three-volume, fictionalised autobiography, collectively known as the Sherston trilogy. |
| Price | £7800 |
