Leslie Starke: A Modernist Pose

It wasn't so very long ago that poking fun at the sculpture of Henry Moore was a cartoon trope of its own.

"Just a little wider yet, Miss Kirkby . . . "
Leslie Starke
Original art
Il Travaso

Cartoonist Leslie Starke, based in London, sold this cartoon to the Italian magazine Il Travaso. The magazine ceased publication in 1966.

"Just a little wider yet, Miss Kirkby . . . "
Leslie Starke
Original art
Il Travaso

The published caption would have been in Italian.

Verso

Leslie Starke
eBay listing ended July 25, 2025

 https://www.ebay.com/itm/285758636613?_skw=signed++Yorker&itmmeta=01K23GVSJ501YSPRVD4J0J3D5K&hash=item42888ac245:g:pQ4AAOSwt-BeJhTO&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA0FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1cXjpab4HyBCOsS4Y42K2Gq8gjDKQxCwS3ETq08NLmqgJb3dySOlJbrSgsmMprjJAguOGlyQQaE0V2L

CC5S6Flvooak68J1358PrWiy9E8zODEH4C822r%2F2YZxC4%2FosRP8ziFeIq6EYnDblTuPifuqBaOKCpMkxRDFzq9iL58hZDnlb8Vol0jI%2FYgotJzaNTiyEv3favJNZ0bdCm1Kvpl6SH1O%2FXs5FS%2Bb52Ht1Dy1OEGXZ3XHTdkl%2BMYE%2BQkVat2k%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6SZ7_CQZg

Leslie Starke
eBay item description

Note:  This cartoon by Leslie Starke was published, apparently, in issue 386. Can anyone provide the date and perhaps a photo of the cartoon in the magazine? Grazie.

05026

The Autograph Collection of Neil Walden

Neil Walden's collection of autographs was sold in London on September 15. The subjects were "artists, fashion designers and cartoonists," to quote the enumeration of Chiswick Auctions. Nevertheless, the cartoonists predominate here. Clearly, Walden was interested in creative visual artists. It would be interesting therefore to know if this Neil Walden of Yately is the writer of that name.

Autographs
Chiswick Auctions listing of September 15, 2024

https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/185570400_autograph-collection-artists-fashion-designers-and-cartoonists?from=alert&utm_source=SavedAlert&utm_campaign=SearchAlert_20230912_A&utm_medium=email&utm_content=itemendingsoon

04768

Mary Petty: Fay's Brush with Henry Moore

That's Mrs. Peabody's maid, Fay, having a little dust up with a Henry Moore sculpture in Mary Petty's apparently unpublished original illustration.

Many a mid-century cartoonist made fun of Moore's modern sculptures; Petty goes for the obvious gag but she shows no apparent disrespect. Rather, she has poor Fay going to impractical extremes in order to get her housework done. It's an awkward image for the usually graceful Fay; in fact all the poise resides in the Moore work. This is a study in contrasts: Fay is black-and-white, angular, off-balance, while the reclining figure is colorful, rounded, sturdy. All this might have worked as an amusing cover for The New Yorker; very likely it was submitted and even considered by the editors. Still, one can almost imagine the magazine's founding editor Harold Ross, something of a literalist, demanding to know why Fay couldn't just as easily go around the sculpture as through it.

Detail of maid and sculpture

Mary Petty's signature

Verso

The verso bears a Greek stamp and a notation. The letters at the top look tantalizingly like an O.K. The writing resembles printer's marks. Was this piece in fact published?

Tape residue is affixed to the bottom of the art. Who puts tape on a Henry Moore?

More tape residue is on the left side of the art.

Mary Petty
Chairish listing accessed March 19, 2022

https://www.chairish.com/product/2424924/mary-petty-maid-dusting-henry-moore-sculpture-signed-original-watercolor

03961