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Lot Essay
Richard Eurich's paintings are frequently concerned with the sea and English countryside, and during the Second World War he was made an Official War Artist for the Admiralty. After the war, he taught at the Camberwell School of Art, and in 1953 was elected a Royal Academician.
In 1934 Richard Eurich moved to the village of Dibden Purlieu on the edge of the New Forest. Richard and his wife Mavis had been given the land as a wedding present by her parents, and the house, Appletreewick, was designed by Mavis's architect brother. The house had a thatched roof and there was a schoolroom at the back, in which Mavis and her friend Marion Stewart ran a small nursery school. Richard's studio was further down the garden, and he painted there until the early 1950s when, as his daughter Caroline Toppin writes, 'a legacy enabled the couple to extend the house, turning the old schoolroom into the studio that was to be his workplace for the rest of his life' (quoted in E. Chaney and C. Clearkin, Richard Eurich (1903-1992): A Visionary Artist, London, 2003, p. 42). The large window, seen in the present picture, looked onto his much-loved garden, and this painting provides a rare glimpse of the interior and garden at Appletreewick.
In 1934 Richard Eurich moved to the village of Dibden Purlieu on the edge of the New Forest. Richard and his wife Mavis had been given the land as a wedding present by her parents, and the house, Appletreewick, was designed by Mavis's architect brother. The house had a thatched roof and there was a schoolroom at the back, in which Mavis and her friend Marion Stewart ran a small nursery school. Richard's studio was further down the garden, and he painted there until the early 1950s when, as his daughter Caroline Toppin writes, 'a legacy enabled the couple to extend the house, turning the old schoolroom into the studio that was to be his workplace for the rest of his life' (quoted in E. Chaney and C. Clearkin, Richard Eurich (1903-1992): A Visionary Artist, London, 2003, p. 42). The large window, seen in the present picture, looked onto his much-loved garden, and this painting provides a rare glimpse of the interior and garden at Appletreewick.