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HENRI GAUDIER-BRZESK A (1891-1915) Bird Swallowing a Fish, 1914 (posthumous cast, 1964) Bronze with patina 33 x 58 x 27 cm (13 x 22 ⅞ x 10 ⅝ in) Proveance The Artist Sophie Brzeska's Estate The plaster purchased by Jim Ede from the Treasury in 1927 Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge Literature H. S. Ede, A Life of Gaudier-Brzeska, 1930, p. 205, repr. pl. 42, facing p. 180, from a photograph showing the sculptor standing behind the plaster Ede described Gaudier-Brzeska's Bird Swallowing a Fish as 'a remarkable foreshadowing, early in 1914, of all that was to enter our daily lives so soon after; tanks, mortars, bombs.' 1 It was inspired by seeing a large seabird gulping down a fish caught in Hyde Park's Serpentine lake, during one of Gaudier-Brzeska's many sketching trips in London. Also in Kettle's Yard's collection are two related drawings, one in pencil, the other delicately cross-hatched in Indian ink. Bird Swallowing a Fish and Garden Ornament were the first two works in plaster that Ede asked Moore to consider helping him cast in bronze. Their correspondence began in 1963. Visiting the foundry Fiorini and Carney in Fulham, Moore was given a quotation of around £60 each for an edition of six, which he considered very reasonable. 2 Ede received the first batch of casts in February 1964, and by March had begun to think of possible destinations for them. He was undecided about selling prices, repeatedly asking Moore for advice. Edition sizes also concerned Ede: having originally envisaged six casts of Bird Swallowing a Fish, he changed his mind to twelve, then settled on nine (comprising a first edition of 6, and a second edition of 3). 3 A labyrinthine correspondence unfolded over the course of two years with the staff of the Hirshhorn Collection over prices and editions. Having offered the original plaster of Bird Swallowing a Fish for sale in December 1966, with the caveat that its price was likely to rise, by August 1967, when no decision had been reached, Ede increased the price. He then withdrew the offer of the plaster altogether and offered instead a bronze, at double his original offer. His justification was that demand had increased, such that he no longer offered works to museums at half price or less. 4 Ede made a special case for the Tate, where he had once worked. Having sold Bird Swallowing a Fish Above: Extension at Kettle's Tard, Cambridge with Gaudier – Brzeska's Bird Swallowing a Fish. Photograph Mark Dalton, 2025. © Courtesy of Kettle's Yard. Right: Photograph Paul Allitt, 2011. © Courtesy Kettle's Yard. (edition: 3/6) to the gallery in 1964, he donated, with the provenance 'Presented by the Kettle's Yard Collection, Cambridge, 1966', ten sculptures: Garden Ornament (edition: 5/9), Maternity (edition: 6/7), Wrestlers (edition: 6/8), Mermaid (edition: 5/7), Dog (edition: 11/12), Relief Head (edition: 2/9), Monkeys (edition: 2/12), Duck (edition: 4/12), Doorknocker (edition: 4/12), Head (edition: 8/12). In the Scilly Isles in the summer of 1966, Ede found a massive piece of driftwood which, in a garbled piece of reportage, was described by The Times as an admirable base for a sculpture that Hepworth had agreed to design. 5 The latter was untrue, although Hepworth was happy for the wood to be delivered to her studio. It stayed there until May 1969, when Ede wrote to request its return. Hepworth was devastated, having intended that winter to make a sculpture to stand on it. Ede was unwilling to wait: while he could envisage the block as 'a feature' of the new extension at Kettle's Yard, with Gaudier-Brzeska's Bird Swallowing a Fish on it, he could not see his way to incorporating a new work by Hepworth while 'trying to arrange the whole'. 6 Next to the hefty plinth, Ede arranged a group of large pebbles, also from the Scilly Isles. 1 A Way of Life: Kettle's Yard, p. 204. 2 Henry Moore, letter to Ede, 12 September 1963, Kettle's Yard Archive, KY/EDE/3/2/21. 3 Ede, letters to Henry Moore (copies), 1963–64, Kettle's Yard Archive, KY/EDE/3/2/21. 4 Correspondence between Perry B. Cott, Abram Lerner and Ede, 13 December 1966 – 30 December 1968, Kettle's Yard Archive, KY/EDE/3/2/3. 5 'Reward of beachcombing', The Times, 21 July 1966, p.13. 6 Ede, letter to Barbara Hepworth, 5 June 1969, Tate Archive, TGA 21032/1/48/21. 48