Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979)
Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's… Read more VARIOUS PROPERTIES
Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979)

Arched Bridge over a River

Details
Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979)
Arched Bridge over a River
signed 'Hitchens' (lower right), signed again, inscribed and dated '"Arched Bridge over a River"/1965/by IVON HITCHENS/Greenleaves. Petworth. Sussex England' (on a label attached to the stretcher)
oil on canvas
21 x 52 in. (53.3 x 132 cm.)
Provenance
Purchased by the present owner's grandmother from the 1966 exhibition.
Exhibited
New York, Poindexter Gallery, Ivon Hitchens, February 1966, no. 10.
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. VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

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André Zlattinger
André Zlattinger

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Lot Essay

The evocation of water was a speciality of Hitchens throughout his painting career but 1965 proved to be a year particularly rich in riverscapes. This one was shown in 1966 at the Poindexter Gallery, New York in an exhibition billed as Hitchens' 'First one-man show in the United States'. Regrettably, and surprisingly, it was to be followed by only one other, at Theo Waddington's, also in New York, in 1983. One might expect the bold brushstrokes and seductive colour of Hitchens' mature mastery to have made more of a splash.

The compositional 'building blocks' are deceptively simple: overlapping screens of colour - horizontal in the foreground to suggest the movement of water, vertical in the middle distance and background to create a sense of recession to right and to left, with a strong vertical pivot off-centre right. In counterpoint to this basic structure stands the startlingly pink bridge (its arch underscored by warm Venetian red and ochre), which draws the eye to the far left of the canvas then releases it to continue its exploration of the near and far spaces.

The outstanding quality of this painting is the orchestration of its colour in depth, a mark of Hitchens' increasingly complex vision. For example, in the left foreground semi-transparent veils of colour half reveal unexpected warm tones, while in the upper right half of the picture warm overlays cool. The bravura handling is everywhere underpinned by a carefully considered balance of opposites.

P.K.

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