Original model sketches of horses by Edie Sedgwick, accomplished in graphite on an off-white 14 x 11 sheet of sketching paper that contains eight drawings of horses and horse parts, such as ears and hooves. Signed in the lower right corner, “Edith Sedgwick, 1960,” with the left side bearing an address that incorporates her full autograph, “Edith Sedgwick, Box 86, Los Olivos, California, U.S.A.” In fine condition, with a small stain, very light show-through from a stain on reverse, and a paperclip impression to the top edge.
Sedgwick left the St. Timothy's School boarding school in 1959 and returned to her family’s La Laguna ranch in California, where she remained until she was sent to the private Silver Hill psychiatric hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut, in the fall of 1962. Her date notation of 1960 places her at the age of either 16 or 17 when this work was created. An exceptionally early piece from Sedgwick, whose love for horses remained a constant throughout her short life.
According to her brother Jonathan Sedgwick: ‘I always thought Edie wanted to escape on her horse, but she couldn’t get off the ranch. She was penned in. Usually it started with a battle with my father. She always felt that he would come and get her. So she could only run away on the ranch. She would just disappear into the mountains with her horse, Chub, and you never knew where she was. Then she’d come back mellowed out.’
From the Michael Post Collection.
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