Godfrey Miller (Godfrey Clive Miller) (1893-1964)

Standing figure with weight on one leg, c. 1957

Stamped with John Henshaw’s studio stamp of Godfrey Miller’s estate and numbered “335”

Pencil on buff coloured paper

Size: (image within the window mount) 37.2 x 24.5 cm; (frame) 64 x 49.9 cm.

Condition: the sheet is in very good condition; the timber frame is unvarnished and has minor signs of its age (i.e. yellow oxidisation, insect specks and dustiness), there are light scratches on the Perspex/acrylic sheet and the backing sheet should be replaced.

I am selling this framed, original, museum-quality life-class drawing by Godfrey Miller for [deleted] including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this analytically strong figure drawing by one of Australia’s most famous artists, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This drawing has been sold

Of all the Miller drawing that I’ve posted over the last few days, this is my favourite. What I like about it is the duality and contrast between single strong lines and lightly laid scribbled gestures where both sets of lines perform different functions.

For me, the single strong lines represent Miller’s perception of critical silhouette edges observed in the model’s contrapposto pose. By contrast, the scribble gestures signify Miller’s perception of essential thrusts and shifts of movement as the model—most likely a female judging by the hips—balances her weight on one leg.

Godfrey Miller (Godfrey Clive Miller) (1893-1964)

Seated figure facing towards the right, c. 1957

Stamped with John Henshaw’s studio stamp of Godfrey Miller’s estate and numbered “286”

Pencil on buff coloured paper

Size: (image within the window mount) 37.6 x 25 cm; (frame) 64.3 x 49.6 cm

Condition: the sheet is in good condition but with light areas at the upper edge and the sheet overlaps the window matt on the lower edge; the timber frame is unvarnished and has minor signs of its age (i.e. yellow oxidisation, insect specks and dustiness), there are marks (dust?) on the window matt and the backing sheet should be replaced.

I am selling this framed, original, museum-quality life-class drawing by Godfrey Miller for AU$1200 including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this analytically strong figure drawing by one of Australia’s most famous artists, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

My reading of this drawing is that Miller has simplified the figure’s many shapes and angles down to its basic components: blocks and cylinders. Not only has he represented what he perceives to be the figure’s structural “building blocks,” but he has also described the spatial relationship of these blocks with one another.

For example, Miller signifies the spatial relationship between the figure’s arm that is closest to the viewer and the figure’s thorax by adding a dark tonal area on the outside of the arm—a tone that Paul Klee terms “exotopic tone”—to suggest that there is space behind the arm. Going further, Miller has also spatially separated the thorax from the further away arm by adding tone to the outside of the thorax to suggest that there is space between the thorax and the further away arm.

Godfrey Miller (Godfrey Clive Miller) (1893-1964)

Seated figure facing towards the front, c. 1957

Stamped with John Henshaw’s studio stamp of Godfrey Miller’s estate and numbered “64”

Pencil on buff coloured paper

Size: (image within the window mount) 37.7 x 25.2 cm; (frame) 64.3 x 49.9 cm

Condition: the sheet is in very good condition; the timber frame is unvarnished and has minor signs of its age (i.e. yellow oxidisation, insect specks and dustiness) and the backing sheet should be replaced.

I am selling this framed, original, museum-quality life-class drawing by Godfrey Miller for [deleted] including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this analytically strong figure drawing by one of Australia’s most famous artists, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

This drawing has been sold

This drawing showcases Miller’s view of the tensions, relationships of angles and critical shifts of weight and mass in a figure. Where Miller perceived the strongest tensions of compression and weight in the figure, he invariably pressed harder on the pencil to create a visual analogue for the model’s physical experiences through dark emphatic lines. By contrast, where Miller saw a lessening of the same tensions his marks become softer and more like scribble.

Artists who have engaged in life-class sessions have all made—or should have made—sketches like this where their understanding of the model’s physical experience of maintaining balance in a pose is translated into expressive marks. This is an artist’s drawing made for artists. It was intended to be a work of self-exploration and focused commitment to thinking and feeling rather that as drawing designed to charm a viewer and the commercial market.

Godfrey Miller (Godfrey Clive Miller) (1893-1964)

Slade figure study of a male torso, c. 1930–34

Stamped with John Henshaw’s studio stamp of Godfrey Miller’s estate and numbered “S113”

Pencil on buff coloured paper

Size: (image within the window mount) 19 x 8.2 cm; (frame) 49 x 35.4 cm.

Condition: the sheet is trimmed irregularly at the top edge; the timber frame is unvarnished and has minor signs of its age (i.e. yellow oxidisation, insect specks and dustiness) and the backing sheet should be replaced.

I am selling this very early and rare drawing (in the sense that Miller destroyed/culled most of his early drawings) for AU$1200 including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.  

If you are interested in purchasing this original and very early drawing by one of Australia’s most famous artists, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

(Note that this photo has reflections that are not a part of the drawing)

For me this life class study of a male nude has slight overtones of androgyny and I had to think hard why this is so.

The first reason that sprung to mind is that Miller has erased the arms, legs and face of the figure: arguably, a masculine way of looking at attractive females.

There is also the curious failure to draw the genitals: a missing feature that is possibly a symptom of the age of censure from which this drawing arose rather than a delight in castration.

The third reason has to do with the sensitive treatment of the contrapposto pose (i.e. the S-shaped rhythm passing through the figure) in that, Miller seems to lovingly/tentatively/softly stroke the edges of forms rather than using emphatic/manly/unambiguous marks to portray him. (My sincere apologies if any of the above descriptions of gender attributes are inaccurate or too sweeping in their categorisations.)

Godfrey Miller (Godfrey Clive Miller) (1893-1964)

Slade figure study of a female torso, c. 1930–34

Stamped with John Henshaw’s studio stamp of Godfrey Miller’s estate and numbered “S113”

Pencil on buff coloured paper

Size: (image within the window mount) 9.7 x 6.9 cm; (frame) 40.5 x 34.8 cm.

Condition: the sheet has a pinhole on the right side of the figure; there is a bubble in the Perspex/acrylic sheet; the timber frame is unvarnished and has minor signs of its age (i.e. yellow oxidisation, insect specks and dustiness) and the backing sheet should be replaced.

I am selling this framed very early and rare drawing (in the sense that Miller destroyed/culled most of his early drawings) for AU$1200 including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this original and very early drawing by one of Australia’s most famous artists, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

Although this early drawing by Godfrey Miller is an academic study executed from direct observation during a life class, it has many of the hallmarks of his mature works. By this I mean that the line work shows Miller visually searching for the structure of the figure’s form in a way that a blind person might “feel” the figure’s surface tensions, curves, soft and hard spots. This approach is often described—at least by me—as a haptic approach as opposed to a strictly visual one. What is especially lovely to see is the way that Miller phrases his lines by varying the pressure on the pencil so that the lines flow in the pictorial space of the image or punctuate important landmarks like the figure’s navel.