Dark Grove

In 1940, Hitchens and his family departed a war torn London for the Sussex countryside, where the artist was able to acquire a small area of woodland on Lavington Common in Sussex. It was here that the artist further developed his fascination with the woodland subject matter, and this pre-occupation ensued until the artist’s death in 1979. Dark Grove exemplifies Hitchens’ woodland interiors from the 1950s. Painted on the panoramic format that became synonymous with the artist’s work from 1936, a split oak tree takes centre stage in the composition – its branches helping us to navigate the highly worked arrangement of colour and form. In the mid-to-late 1950s, Hitchens made a series of paintings featuring this particular tree. Divided Oak Tree, No. 2, 1958, a later reworking of the present composition, is a celebrated work by the artist that belongs to the Tate collection in London, and was illustrated on the front cover of the of his seminal retrospective exhibition in 1963.

We are very grateful to Peter Khoroche and John Hitchens for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.