Lot Essay
Pasmore painted this subject on four occasions between 1944 and 1949, the subject being the back gardens at Hammersmith Terrace as seen from the artist's studio at number 16. However this painting was completed after his move to Blackheath.
Although entitled The Gardens of Hammersmith, No.2 the present work is in fact the third in the series, with the final painting still in the possession of the artist. The representational impression of the first two versions are dramatically reduced and simplified to almost pure abstract elements and interestingly here Pasmore reverses the composition. The dense undergrowth and bushes have been transformed into semi-translucent forms made up of Seurat-like coloured dots, and the trees are reduced to minimal straight and curved lines. The whole composition is painted over a light tonal ground. Bruce Laughton in his survery of the Euston Road Group (loc. cit.) considers that 'this work is one of Pasmore's most successful syntheses of representational and abstract art'.
Vivien Leigh was an intuitive and well-informed collector of modern art. Her collection included works by Renoir and Degas (sold at Christie's in earlier times) as well as by less famous painters such as the Sri Lankan artist George Keyt. She was a close friend of Lord Clark of Saltwood, then Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, and a major patron of contemporary British artists, particularly the Euston Road Group. He would undoubtedly have encouraged Vivien Leigh in the purchase of this remarkable painting.
Although entitled The Gardens of Hammersmith, No.2 the present work is in fact the third in the series, with the final painting still in the possession of the artist. The representational impression of the first two versions are dramatically reduced and simplified to almost pure abstract elements and interestingly here Pasmore reverses the composition. The dense undergrowth and bushes have been transformed into semi-translucent forms made up of Seurat-like coloured dots, and the trees are reduced to minimal straight and curved lines. The whole composition is painted over a light tonal ground. Bruce Laughton in his survery of the Euston Road Group (loc. cit.) considers that 'this work is one of Pasmore's most successful syntheses of representational and abstract art'.
Vivien Leigh was an intuitive and well-informed collector of modern art. Her collection included works by Renoir and Degas (sold at Christie's in earlier times) as well as by less famous painters such as the Sri Lankan artist George Keyt. She was a close friend of Lord Clark of Saltwood, then Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, and a major patron of contemporary British artists, particularly the Euston Road Group. He would undoubtedly have encouraged Vivien Leigh in the purchase of this remarkable painting.