Peter Howson

Flower's East, London;
Private collection

Robert Heller, Peter Howson, 2003, illustrated, p.119

The canvas is original and has not been lined. The work is in very good overall condition and is ready to hang. UV light inspection reveals no evidence of any retouching or restoration. Held in a plain wooden box frame.
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Following Howson's important yet highly traumatic experiences in Bosnia he began work on a major series of paintings which were to be exhibited at Flower's East in 1996 under the title The Rake's Progress and Other Paintings. Howson, a passionate lover of classical music, drew his initial inspiration from Stravinsky's opera The Rake's Progress which itself was based on William Hogarth's series of paintings and engravings of a man's downward journey ending in imprisonment in Bedlam. Robert Heller notes that the present work is one of the most Bosch-like of Howson's paintings. The Rake series, as with a large body of Howson's work, contains an intense narrative and representations of the artist's inner struggles and demons. The present work was painted at a period of desperate depression for Howson with the breakdown of relationships and heavy drinking and Heller identifies that, 'the series, with its self portraits and identification with the Rake, reads like Howson's way of working himself out of black emotions. Apart from any cathartic effect they may have had on his mental state, the paintings, with their strong narrative line proving so effective, gave Howson an artist uplift.'  (Heller, Peter Howson, p.120)