Harold C. Harvey, R.A. (1874-1941)
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Harold C. Harvey, R.A. (1874-1941)

Lady in an interior arranging flowers

Details
Harold C. Harvey, R.A. (1874-1941)
Lady in an interior arranging flowers
signed and dated 'Harold Harvey. 1916' (lower right)
oil on canvas
20 ¼ x 16 ¼ in. (51.4 x 41.2 cm.)
Literature
K. McConkey, P. Risdon, & P. Sheppard, Harold Harvey, Painter of Cornwall, Bristol, 2001, p. 146, no. 221 (?).
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Clare Keiller
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Lot Essay

During the Great War, when painters were restricted from painting en plein air in remote coastal areas such as West Cornwall, Harvey began a remarkable series of full-length figure compositions for which his wife, Gertrude, posed. The couple had been married in April 1911 and set up home at Maen Cottage overlooking Newlyn Harbour, Penzance and Mount’s Bay (For a full account of Harvey’s career, see K. McConkey, P. Risdon, & P. Sheppard, op. cit.). At that point, five years earlier, Harvey was emerging, along with Harold and Laura Knight, as one of the leading second generation Newlyn painters, committed to representing his corner of the world. Fisher- and country-folk and their healthy children at work and play, were shown in a sunny, picturesque ambiance. However, when threats of a German invasion were looming, like many others, Harvey was forced indoors, producing paintings that, in essence, revived late Victorian aestheticism. From Whistler and his followers, the painter took the ideal of visual harmony, in which surface detail was reduced, settings simplified and colours harmonized. The decorative effect, following authentic Whistlerian principles, was derived from Japanese prints, seen in Lady in an interior arranging Flowers the only known example in Harvey’s work to make such an important connection. For this alone its recovery is important.

The picture begins to establish an inventory of props that would appear from time to time in Harvey’s work. The half-moon console table for instance, is that which appears in the double portrait of Laura and Paul Jewel Hill (1916, Private Collection) and was still in use in 1937 when The Letter (sold in these Rooms on 7 June 2002) was painted. Gertrude’s silk shawl was evidently prized since it recurs in The Blue Gown (1917, Private Collection) and Woman by the Sideboard (Private Collection), while the little bowl of anemones is that which has been moved to the chest of drawers in Reflections (1916, Cyfarthfa Castle Museum, Merthyr Tydfil). Anemones, shrill notes of ultramarine and crimson, were favourite flowers. Anemones (1916, Risdon, no. 209), a picture of Gertrude seated beside the console table, was sold Bonhams, London, on 6 November 1980.

The case is worth making that the present work may well be one of Harvey’s Royal Academy pictures of 1916. The Green Gown was shown at the Royal Academy in 1916 (no. 889), and again at the Autumn Exhibition of the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool in 1916 (no. 216). Contemporary reviewers referred to it as ‘charming’ and a work on which ‘he has lavished an unusual amount of skill … and has achieved a marvellous result’ (‘Newlyn Artists’ Work – Pictures for the Great Exhibitions’, West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, 23 March 1916, p. 4; ‘The Newlyn Pictures Annual Show Day at the Opie Memorial Gallery’, Cornishman, 23 March 1916, p. 3).The principal motif was ‘a lady attired in an elaborate green gown’. This full, floor-length taffeta skirt, more than any single element, places Harvey’s new picture alongside those of the Knights – Harold was also a painter of ‘charming’ interiors, and Laura, an obvious advocate of visual harmony in The Green Feather (1911, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa).

Moving from this grand ‘thesis’ picture to Harvey’s putative Green Gown however, demands refocussing – from a seven foot canvas to a 20 inch one. We move closer to appreciate the mastery of form, the control of surface and the harmony of colour. This is the work of a petit maitre, perfect in its way, like a Metsu or a Terborch, and the pleasure it gives is of a similar order. In that sunlit room one hundred years ago, Gertrude’s flowers, and the delicate fingers with which she places them, contain a yearning.

We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.

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