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Paul Ayshford Methuen (1886 - 1974)
Barrage Balloons, Regents Park, 9 March 1940
Oil on board 36 x 52 cm Signed lower left and titled and dated lower centre. Lord Methuen's oil painting of Regent's Park on a winter's day, with barrage balloons above. Barrage balloons were set up - stationed at an altitude of around 4,000 ft - as a barrier to enemy aircraft. The steel cables used to tether the balloons would take an enemy aeroplane out of the sky if it were to hit the cable. The UK had thousands of them, filled partly with hydrogen and operated largely by women, to protect significant towns, cities, and military installations. These strange blobs floated over the country, just asking to be captured by artists. Methuen had rejoined his regiment (serving as a Captain) in 1939 but was likely stationed in London for a while, when he might have had the opportunity to capture this scene. When Methuen painted the scene in 1940, Britain was still in the stage of the phoney war. The Battle of Britain did not commence until 10 July, and the Blitz not until 7 September - but Britain's defences were ready. Barrage balloons were important all the way through the War: they defended London against the V2 missiles; they defended the D-Day invasion fleet; and they protected the invasion army for months. Indeed, it was said that the vast amount of material brought into the UK from the States prior to D-Day would have caused Britain to sink under the sea, were it not for the huge number of barrage balloons holding the country up... Condition: excellent. Recently revarnished. If you’d like to know more, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
John Piper C.H. (British 1903-1992) Nursery Frieze II
500 x 1250 mm Lithograph 1936 One of Piper's many seascapes, Frieze II is an exercise in abstract capriccio. Piper draws together the muted grey, pink, and blue of the lithograph's fragmented background with foreground details in black, white, and bright red, picking out particular moments of the frieze for the viewer. The lighthouse has no keeper; the beach and the pier are empty; the train has neither passengers nor driver. The church at the top of the rocky hill is a brilliant cubist borrowing, showing both the West end and the North side simultaneously - and it has no congregation. The only human figures present in the frieze are those collected around the bonfire, watching the flames and the show of fireworks. The scene is at once devoid of people and intensely human. Piper was just 24 when he made Frieze II. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Generally very good, backed to linen with small - and largely not visible - areas of restoration. -
Mary Fedden (1915-2012) Moonlight at Cappadocia (1970)
Watercolour 18 x 13 cm Signed and dated lower left Lonely Planet says of Cappadocia, "As if plucked from a whimsical fairytale and set down upon the stark Anatolian plains, Cappadocia is a geological oddity of honeycombed hills and towering boulders of otherworldly beauty." Here Fedden presents an almost surreal landscape, where the forms of rocks, sky, and moonlight swim out of a subtle palette. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Excellent. In original frame with replacement mount in the style of the original. -
Brendan Neiland (b.1941)
Original Designs for Intercity Posters - Edinburgh and York
Collage, spraypaint and cut out 91x58cm (36×23 inches) each 1991 Click here for biographical details and other works by the artist. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Eva Lucy Harwood (1893 - 1972)
Still Life with Flowers and Glass
Oil on canvas 49 x 40 cm ( 67 x 57 cm framed) A mid-century still life typical of Harwood's impasto style. Lucy Harwood was a British artist who studied art at the Slade just before the outbreak of the First World War. She had initially intended to be a professional pianist, but turned her attentions to visual art after becoming partially paralysed. She was one of the first students to enrol at Cedric Morris' East Anglian School of Drawing and Painting, where she focused on painting Post-Impressionist landscapes, painting just with her left hand. She moved to Upper Layham in Suffolk and is known for her landscapes of the area. Condition: generally very good. Handsome hand-finished frame. Provenance: Louise Kosman, Edinburgh. If you’d like to know more, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Click here to view our other still life pictures. -
John Piper (1903 - 1992)
Radcliffe Camera
Lithograph 53 x 35.5 cm Numbered 110/1150 lower left and signed lower right in pencil. John Piper's view of the Radcliffe Camera in Radcliffe Square. John Piper CH was an English painter, printmaker, and designer of stained-glass windows. His work often focused on the British landscape, especially churches and monuments, and included tapestry designs, book jackets, screen-prints, photography, fabrics and ceramics. Condition: very good. Attractively framed; frame included for mainland UK shipping only. If you are interested, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Click here for other views of Oxford. -
Sir Terry Frost (1915-2003) Bottle and Statue Oil on board c. 1947 38 x 46cm A distinctive still life featuring bottle, statue, and drapery. Terry Frost was a prominent British abstract artist. Frost is most noted for his simplistic abstract forms and unusual colour; he worked alongside the St Ives group and as Barbara Hepworth's assistant for several years, his artistic style being heavily influenced by them. In 1992 he became a Royal Academician, and he was made Sir Terry Frost in 1998. Bottle and Statue highlights Frost's unique compositional skill. His brushwork makes the statue seem like a real nude, who, framed by turquoise and ochre draperies, examines the still life in the foreground. An early work, painted shortly after the War and prior to his adoption of abstraction. For other works by Frost and biographical details please click here. Condition: A little craquelure in the oil above the statue's head. -
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912 - 2004)
Card for Sandra Blow's 75th birthday (1995)
Gouache and collage 34 x 21 cm Inscribed to reverse "For Sandra, Happy Birthday, with love Willie, 13/9/95". Barns-Graham's modern design features 70 vividly coloured circles; each one is different from the last, but all are geometrically aligned in neat rows and columns. Sandra Blow's initials appear separately as "S" and "B" in the design. Blow and Barns-Graham became friends in the 1950s; both spent lengthy periods of time in St Ives, and made major contributions to Britain's catalogue of post-war art. Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, known as Willie, was born in St Andrews, Fife, on 8 June 1912. Her parents were second cousins, and their respective families were well established representatives of minor Scottish gentry from both the east and west of the country. As a child, Barns-Graham showed very early signs of creative ability. It was at school that Wilhelmina decided that she wanted to be an artist, stating later in life that "painting chose me, not I it". After school she set her sights on Edinburgh College of Art where, after some dispute with her father (who was an emotional man prone to uncontrolled anger), she enrolled in 1931. During her time at Edinburgh College, Barns-Graham was taught by tutors including portrait painter David Alison and painter William MacTaggart. Her friends there included the influential Scottish painters Robert MacBryde, Robert Colquhoun, and William Gear. After her education, Barns-Graham made study trips to Paris, London, and St Tropez before moving to St Ives, Cornwall, in 1940 (at the suggestion of the Edinburgh College of Art's Principal Hubert Wellington). Barns-Graham moved near to where a group of modernist artists had settled, at Carbis Bay - this was a pivotal moment in her life. On one of her first evenings there she met the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, who made an immediate and lasting impression on her. She then went on to meet Borlase Smart, Alfred Wallis, and Bernard Leach, as well as the painter Ben Nicholson and the sculptors Naum Gabo and Margaret Mellis. After two weeks in St Ives, Barns-Graham acquired her first studio, directly below the Porthmeor Gallery which was the administrative headquarters of the St Ives Society of Artists. Her paintings at the time were heavily influenced by the Cornish landscapes and the St Ives harbour. During 1940 and 1941, Barns-Graham contributed to the war effort by volunteering in a factory making camouflage nets. In 1942 Barns-Graham became a member of the Newlyn Society of Artists, in which she exhibited with every year, and the St Ives Society of Artists. Whilst establishing herself in St Ives, Barns-Graham also continued to send work back to Scotland for major exhibitions held there such as the Royal Scottish Academy's 117th Exhibition in 1943. The 1940s were an active time for the St Ives Society of Artists who received a number of invitations to send exhibitions and groups of works to galleries in the UK and abroad, Barns-Graham's work was always included in these as the Society's secretary, Borlase Smart, thought highly of her work. Barns-Graham's first opportunity to exhibit in London came when her work was included in a group exhibition of six at the Redfern Gallery. This was due to the introduction and support of Patrick Heron, who had visited Barns-Graham's studio in St Ives and was excited by her work. Barns-Graham would later have her first one-person exhibition in London at Redfern in 1952. After a few years of tension, Barns-Graham eventually left the St Ives Society of Artists in 1949, becoming one of the founding members of a new breakaway group named Penwith Society of Arts. The first Penwith Society exhibition opened in June 1949 to huge success - 2755 paying visitors came to see it. Provenance: the Jonathan Grimble Estate; the Sandra Blow Estate. Condition: very good; in original frame. If you’d like to know more, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Craigie Aitchison (1926 - 2009)
Yellow Crucifixion
Screenprint 76 x 63 cm Published by Advanced Graphics Limited (2000). Craigie Aitchison’s iteration of the crucifixion sees Christ upon a Cross with no patibulum (horizontal beam). Jesus becomes part of the stipes (vertical beam), a willing participant in his own martyrdom. The star above his head is the Star of Bethlehem, and the sheep or goat at his feet the Lamb of God. These symbols of divinity, set against the backdrop an empty yellow-soaked landscape, transform this picture of the crucifixion into an image of resurrection. Condition: excellent. Magnificently framed. -
Terry Frost (1915-2003)
'Untitled Landscape'
Oil on canvas, laid on board 22 x 81.5cm Exhibited London, Coram Gallery, Terry Frost: Works on Paper and Small Paintings, 23 September-29 October 1994 Click here for biographical details and other works by the artist. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Ken Howard RA (1932 - 2022)
Hampstead Church (St Stephen's Church, Rosslyn Hill)
Oil on board 75 x 91 cm Ken Howard's magnificent view of St Stephen's Church, Hampstead. The artist's rich, deep colour palette and use of impasto underline the neo-gothic style of the church. Howard died in Hampstead and painted several views of the area and its architecture. St Stephen's was designed in the Neo Gothic style by Samuel Sanders Teulon and he considered it the best of the 114 churches he designed, calling it his "mighty church". The building is no longer a church, but wedding ceremonies still take place there; it was made a Grade I listed building in 1974. Kenneth Howard OBE RA was a British artist and painter. He was President of the New English Art Club from 1998 to 2003. He studied at the Hornsey College of Art and the Royal College of Art. In 1958 he won a British Council Scholarship to Florence, and in 1973 and 1978 he was the Official War Artist to Northern Ireland, and 1973 - 80 worked in various locations, including Hong Kong, Cyprus and Canada with the British Army. In 1983 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA). In 1998 he became President of the New English Art Club, a post he held until 2003. In 1991 he was elected a Royal Academician (RA). Howard was given his OBE in 2010. Condition: very good. If you’d like to know more, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
John Piper (1903-1992)
Reims Cathedral (c. 1960)
Ink, watercolour and gouache 21x35cm Inscribed 'Reims' lower left and signed 'John Piper' lower right. Piper loved all things France, and all things Cathedral; in this work, he brings the cathedral of Reims, where France's monarchs were crowned, to life. Piper also produced an aquatint of Reims which was published in 1972. For other works by the artist and biographical details, click here. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. Condition: Generally excellent; framed. -
John Piper (1903-1992)
Bullslaughter Bay
Watercolour, gouache and pastel on paper 27.5 x 35.5cm John Piper CH was an English painter, printmaker, and designer of stained-glass windows. His work often focused on the British landscape, especially churches and monuments, and included tapestry designs, book jackets, screen-prints, photography, fabrics and ceramics. Piper spent a considerable amount of time in Pembrokeshire, frequently returning to the landscape of Bullslaughter Bay; this painting was probably produced there in the mid-1950s. The artist captures an animated, capricious bay, characterised by a distinctive colour palette and stamped with irregular rock formations. Condition: generally excellent. For other works by the artist and biographical details, click here. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Michael Ayrton (1921-1975) Girl Wringing out her Hair Patinated bronze, 1962 26cm in height Michael Ayrton was a British artist and writer, renowned as a painter, printmaker, sculptor and designer, and also as a critic, broadcaster and novelist. This sculpture, rendered in patinated bronze, is a portrayal of an unposed nude, one of Ayrton's favourite subjects. In his book "Drawings and Sculpture", Ayrton muses on his studies of bathers: 'I like to study the nude when he or she is untroubled by my observation, and bathers in general are the only nudes, or semi-nudes, who are not particularly interested in the onlooker.' Provenance: Acquired directly from the Artist by Nigel Balchin, a close friend of Ayrton's, thence by descent to the previous owner. Sotheby's, Lot 128, 11 July 2013. Literature: Michael Ayrton, Drawings and Sculpture, with a Forward by C. P. Snow, Cory, Adams & Mackay, London, 1962, illustrated pl.73 (another cast). If you'd ike to know more, please email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056. -
Wilfred Gabriel de Glehn RA (1870-1951)
Clare College from the Backs
Watercolour Inscribed “To my friend H Thirkill Master of Clare” Signed “W de Glehn, 1940” 40x50cm De Glehn painted Henry Thirkill in a portrait that is in the collection of Clare College and may be viewed here. Thirkill was Master between 1939 and 1958 and the portrait was commissioned in 1947. A versatile painter, skilled at portraiture, landscapes and figures de Glehn is regarded as one of England’s premier Impressionist painters. His ability to portray lighting in a lively fashion and his vibrant use of colour combine to provide wonderfully rich paintings. If you are interested email info@manningfineart.co.uk or call us on 07929 749056.
