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Lot Essay
Howard Bliss, the previous owner of this work, was Hitchens's most enduring patron. They met in 1944, and before long Bliss, the younger brother of the composer, Sir Arthur, was the owner of more than twenty paintings by Hitchens. This number eventually swelled to over fifty.
He used the proceeds of the sale of his father's valuable collection of prints to finance a collection of his own, made up of a fine group of landscape drawings by Gainsborough, as well as the contemporary art which was his passion. He was made a member of the Contemporary Art Society's selection committee, and he made generous gifts of Hitchens's works to galleries and museums, most notably to the Tate Gallery and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
(see P. Khoroche, Ivon Hitchens, London, 1990, p.65).
He used the proceeds of the sale of his father's valuable collection of prints to finance a collection of his own, made up of a fine group of landscape drawings by Gainsborough, as well as the contemporary art which was his passion. He was made a member of the Contemporary Art Society's selection committee, and he made generous gifts of Hitchens's works to galleries and museums, most notably to the Tate Gallery and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
(see P. Khoroche, Ivon Hitchens, London, 1990, p.65).