TWO SKETCHBOOKS (I & II)
(i) brush and ink and grey and purple wash (92pp); (ii) brush and ink and charcoal with grey and purple wash (64pp); (both black cloth hardback)
(i) 14.5 x 14.5cm; 5 3/4 x 5 3/4in
(ii)10.5 x 10.5cm; 4 1/4 x 4 1/4in

Property from the Estate of Karsten Schubert

Virtue typically works in monochrome, calling colour 'unnecessary distraction'; his preferred medium is drawing in pen and brush and ink. The present two sketchbooks contain a variety of spontaneous calligraphic sketches, the wet pages folded together to imprint on the page opposite.

Born in Accrington, Lancashire, Virtue studied at the Slade in the late 1960s under Frank Auerbach and Euan Uglow. His many influences included the 19th century painters Constable and Turner and the moody, detailed line-based drawings and watercolours of Samuel Palmer. In the 1970s and 1980s Virtue worked at Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, the subject of much of his work, before moving to Devon and producing work around the Exe estuary on the south coast. He was Associate Artist at the National Gallery from 2003-2005 and his work is in major public collections worldwide. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Tate St Ives, the Yale Center for British Art and the National Gallery in London.