Lot 204
  • 204

IVON HITCHENS | Trees and Bushes

Estimate
50,000 - 80,000 GBP
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Description

  • Ivon Hitchens
  • Trees and Bushes
  • signed I Hitchens (lower right); also signed Ivon Hitchens, titled Trees and Bushes and inscribed on an Artist’s label on the stretcher bar
  • oil on canvas
  • 52 by 106cm., 20½ by 41¾in.
  • Executed in 1952.

Provenance

Howard Bliss 
The World Wildlife Fund, London, 1970
Christie's, London, 11 May 1973, lot 186
JMC Engineering Consultants Ltd 
Waddington Galleries, London, 1980, where acquired by José and Muriel Campus

Exhibited

London, Leicester Galleries, Ivon Hitchens Paintings 1940-52, June 1952, no.32
Venice, XXVIII Venice Biennale, 1 June - 30 September 1956, no.11
London, Tate, Retrospective Exhibition, 11 July - 18 August 1963, no.81, with tour to City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham
Eastbourne, Towner Art Gallery, Ivon Hitchens: Retrospective Exhibition, 1978, no.8, with tour to Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield; Museum and Art Gallery, Reading and City Museum and Art Gallery, Portsmouth

Literature

Patrick Heron, Ivon Hitchens, London, 1955, illustrated pl.25
Alan Bowness (ed.), Ivon Hitchens, London, 1973, no.33
Peter Khoroche, Ivon Hitchens, London, 1990, pp.86, 115, no.38, illustrated

Condition

The canvas is unlined. The canvas undulates slightly in the left corners. There are fine lines of cracking at the extreme edges of the work, at the overlap. There is frame abrasion at all four edges and some minor, scattered flecks of loss. There is a small raise to the canvas in the lower left corner. There are a very small number of fine lines of craquelure in one or two places. There are a very small number of tiny areas of lifting in an area of green/black pigment in the left hand side of the composition. There is some light surface dirt and some accretions. This excepting the work appears to be in very good overall condition. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals two small areas of restoration at the centre of the lower edge, and a small number of areas of retouching at the extreme edges as a result of historic frame abrasion. The work is held within a simple wooden frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Catalogue Note

‘It is not the subject that truly interests me, but the many possible ways, and finally, the only possible way of expressing it. Setting up my canvas and box in all weathers, I seek first to unravel the essential meaning of my subject, which is synonymous with its structure, and to understand my own psychological reactions to it. Next I must decide how best it can be rendered in paint, not by a literal copying of objects but by combinations and juxtapositions of lines, forms, planes, tones, colours etc., such as will have an aesthetic meaning when put down on canvas. My method usually is to paint a quick “sketch”, then to work out a careful, well-knit design, then to destroy this and start again, painting freely, regardless of the literal proportions of forms because of the way colour reactions of space and form tend to destroy or cut across the actual edges of forms. All the while there should be a dialogue between artist and canvas, so that the picture grows from both ends, like stalactite and stalagmite.’ (Ivon Hitchens, letter to Howard Bliss, quoted in Peter Khoroche, Ivon Hitchens, London 1990, p.52).