Christopher Wood

Redfern Gallery, London, where acquired by the family of the present owners, 20th January 1948

Eric Newton, Christopher Wood, Redfern Gallery, London, 1938, cat. no.275, p.70.

Original canvas. There is a very small reverse pressure mark to the bottom edge of the right hand side. There is a fine area of reticulation visible in the bottom right hand corner, most apparent in the bottom of the brown pigment. Elsewhere there are one or two very fine areas of craquelure, including to the stem of the white flower and to the rim of the glass jar. There is a very small spot of very minor possible loss to the green stem of the tallest purple flower, only visible upon very close inspection. This excepting the work appears to be in good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals a minor area of fluorescence along the extreme right hand edge, which may possibly be in line with an area of very old over-painting. Housed in an ornate plaster frame. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Wood had left Paris in early 1928 to visit his mother at Reddish House in the village of Broadchalk, Wiltshire, a home later belonging to Cecil Beaton, and for Wood a retreat from the hedonism that he had experienced in both London and Paris. Arriving in February, he spent time with his mother as well as with William Nicholson, father to his close friend Ben, and a painter held in high esteem by the artist. Working hard in preparation for a proposed show later in the summer at Tooth’s Gallery, Wood stayed only very briefly at Broadchalk before departing for Ben and Winifred Nicholson’s house at Bankshead, Cumberland. The period was to be a productive one for the artist, creating a number of works that captured the gently rolling hills and early emerald greens of his peaceful and quintessentially British surroundings. 

Ben and Winifred Nicholson had first met Wood in London in 1926, and both were to have an important impact on the young artist. Winifred in particular was to form a close relationship with Wood, and it is through their many surviving letters that much of the biographical information on Wood has subsequently been drawn. Certainly the similarities between one another in terms of subject, composition and palette are clearly visible in the present work. As in Winifred’s work there is a lack of formality in Wood’s composition, with the flowers, which bloom in Britain between November and May, balanced so precariously on the window ledge, and the curtain gently blowing in some imagined breeze.  With the bending, lilting heads one is reminded of Van Gogh’s sunflowers gathered tightly together in an earthenware jug, and the palette, as with much of Wood’s work, is clearly drawn from his time spent in Paris. Later in the year Wood visited Cedric Morris's briefly in St Ives, and Morris’ textured, leafy palette is also visible in the present work. Yet despite the influence of both Winifred Nicholson and Morris, the work that Wood creates is very much his own, with his masterful, unique style and technique, with bright yet balancing colours giving a sense of the warmth and affection that the artist felt for the time spent at home.