Ruined Cottage, Stadhampton

Details

John Piper, C.H. (1903-1992)
Ruined Cottage, Stadhampton
signed 'John Piper' (lower right), inscribed 'Stadhampton Oxon' (lower left, under the mount)
ink, watercolour and gouache on paper
6 ½ x 8 ½ in. (16.5 x 21.5 cm.)
Executed circa 1942.

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Bonhams, London, 26 June 2007, lot 103, where purchased by the present owner.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Brought to you by

Philip Harley

pharley@christies.com +44 207 389 2687

Lot Essay

We are very grateful to Rev. Dr Stephen Laird FSA for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.

This mixed media painting is related to the two ink and gouache drawings reproduced in Piper’s Places by Richard Ingrams of ruined cottages in the south Oxfordshire village of Stadhampton. That sheet of drawings is dated circa 1942, so it is reasonable to date the Freers’ painting to around the same time. The two drawings are dark ink delineations with areas of white gouache (or blank paper) throwing patterns of light across them. The Freers' painting is a much more abstracted and theatrical composition, wonderfully atmospheric and Romantic, rather like a Piper stage design: a dark, moonlit scene full of cast shadows and mysterious doorways.

A.L.

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