The death of the author, historian and critic David Sylvester on
l9 June, aged 76, has now robbed the world of a leading expert on
Francis Bacon — his parents had been Russian-Jewish silver
experts and dealers — whilst Rene Magritte as a catalogue Raisonne
by Sylvester saw the author catapulted into a world class, although
that took a quarter of a century to complete . There were other
notable contributions to Giacometti, he became a member of the Commission
d’Acquisitions for the Musee Nationale d’Art Moderne,
Paris, and he was also a Trustee of the Tate Gallery, London —
a somewhat unique ‘double’ — as well as a Trustee
of the Henry Moore foundation. Although he first aspired to be a
painter, Sylvester was a formidable writer. He made his first inroads
to recognition when encouraged by George Orwell, literary editor
of Tribune, in l942. Sylvester’s Tate gallery shows were memorable,
such as Soutine in l963, Giacometti in l965, and finally Magritte.
