Ronald Searle: A New Yorker Cover Study

It should be no surprise that auction houses often don't know all the history of the works they're selling. In 2004, for example, Bonhams London sold a floral watercolor by Ronald Searle, identifying it only by the assumed title Posy. While the vase is oddly situated, hanging precariously over the corner of a table, its humorous or satiric intent may not be obvious. New Bond Street may have been at a geographic disadvantage here. On the other side of the Atlantic, some New Yorker readers may have recognized the subject matter of this piece: the painting is obviously a study for Searle's magazine cover of June 5, 1989. It's not a rough, strictly speaking, in that the artist is working through some important components of his composition but not the entire thing.

Ronald Searle
Bonhams London, New Bond Street listing of October 12, 2004

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/11229/lot/185/ww.bonhams.com/auctions/11229/lot/185/

https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1989-06-05/flipbook/CV1/

Searle's study, on closer inspection, is dated 1989, the year of the cover, not 1985. The prominent diagonal flourish is a part of Searle's signature, not of his date. (And any numeral seven, had he written it, would generally have a line through it.)

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