Poolside Nude

Provenance

Acquired from the artist by the current owner.

Notes

The present lot, Poolside Nude, is a compelling example of Neil Rogers surreal capriccios. These compositions typically stage a statuesque female figure within an invented and idealised landscape, flanked by towers receding toward a vanishing point. A device drawn from Renaissance and Mannerist perspective painting that lends the scene a theatrical, dreamlike depth.

This compositional arrangement draws on both the artist's inclination towards Mediterranean classicism and his Dutch technical training.¹ The still pool and accompanying laying dog are consistent with his broader vocabulary of quiet, contemplative interiors and animal subjects. The canvas has a quality of busyness held in balance with stillness, offering a more constructed scene than his typical single-subject presentations.

Compared to the artist's more frequently traded single-subject works, this multi-element, architecturally staged composition represents a less commonly encountered mode within his oeuvre. One that draws together the full range of his classical, technical and imaginative concerns in a single canvas.

^1. Everard Read (2005) Everard Read, Neil Rodger: Biography, online, accessed 7 August 2026.