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Lot Essay
This portrait was probably painted on Poros or Hydra - the two islands in the Saronic Gulf where Craxton was based during the 1950s. On the latter he lodged in the ancestral home of his painter friend Niko Ghika, and in both places he lived a sociable life, sketching and painting his shepherd and sailor companions in waterfront cafes and tavernas. The Ghika House burned down in 1961, by which time Craxton had relocated to Crete. The story is currently being told in the free British Museum exhibition Charmed Lives in Greece: Ghika, Craxton, Leigh Fermor, running until 15 July.
We are very grateful to Ian Collins for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Geoffrey Lawson, to whom Greek Fisherboy is dedicated, is referred to in Adrian Clark and Jeremy Dronfield’s biography of Peter Watson. Immediately following an account of Watson’s untimely death in 1956, Watson's distraught partner Norman Fowler is rushed to hospital, and it is 'Geoffrey Lawson of the ICA’ who collected him the next day (letter from Lawson to John Craxton, 6 May 1956, see A. Clark and J. Dronfield, Queer Saint: The Cultured Life of Peter Watson, London, 2015, p. 315).
We are very grateful to Ian Collins for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Geoffrey Lawson, to whom Greek Fisherboy is dedicated, is referred to in Adrian Clark and Jeremy Dronfield’s biography of Peter Watson. Immediately following an account of Watson’s untimely death in 1956, Watson's distraught partner Norman Fowler is rushed to hospital, and it is 'Geoffrey Lawson of the ICA’ who collected him the next day (letter from Lawson to John Craxton, 6 May 1956, see A. Clark and J. Dronfield, Queer Saint: The Cultured Life of Peter Watson, London, 2015, p. 315).