Terence Cuneo | Madame Guillotine
Coming up in our 15th May Modern British and 20th century Art sale is this playful oil on canvas by Terence Cuneo titled Madame Guillotine
Terence Cuneo was born in London, on the 1st November 1906 and was the son of artists who met while studying with Whistler in Paris.
During World War II Cuneo served as a sapper in the Royal Engineers but also completed a small number of commissions for the War Artists' Advisory Committee, providing illustrations of tank and aircraft factories. After his service he became good friends with fellow artist Cyril Parfitt. Also during the War, Cuneo was commissioned by the Foreign Office to produce anti-Nazi drawings and cartoons and an exhibition of his war works was held at the Palaquin Fine Arts gallery in 1942.
From 1954 his works included a small mouse, sometimes lifelike, sometimes cartoonish. These became his trademark after 1956.
They can be difficult to detect, and many people enjoy scouring his paintings to find one. Even some of his portraits of the famous contain a mouse!
Have you seen a mouse in one of his artworks?
