‡John Bratby RA (1928-1992)

‡John Bratby RA (1928-1992)

The Male Menopause

Signed JOHN/BRATBY (lower right), and signed, dated and inscribed 1 MAY 1985 To dear Jack with warmest regards John/To Jack Merrill from John Bratby with every/good wish The Male Menopause (to stretcher)

Oil on canvas

76.3 x 50.8cm

Provenance:

Purchased from the artist by Jack Merrill;

And by descent

In the wake of his divorce to Jean Cooke, Bratby wrote extensively on the theme of 'the male menopause', and provided a cover illustration and jacket quote for a book on the subject. According to him the male menopause comes 'when life should be sweetest, as everything is achived. But it's then that a man feels that there's no future except to continue in the same stale scene, however well monied or satisfactory it might be' (see Maurice Yacowar, The Great Bratby: A Portrait of John Bratby RA (Middlesex University Press, 2008), pp.172-173).