Peter Lanyon

Commissioned from the Artist by Stanley Seeger in 1962

Their sale, Sotheby's London, 30 October 2018, lot 189, where acquired by the present owners

Toby Treves, Peter Lanyon, Catalogue Raisonné of the Oil Paintings and Three-Dimensional Works, London, no.528, illustrated p.564

The final mural was installed on a huge ceiling-joist in Seeger’s music room in New Jersey. This music room was already a venue for both musical & theatrical performances when Lanyon visited in Feb 1962, February & Dec 1963 and April 1964. While Debussy’s “La Mer” became an additional source of inspiration during these visits to New Jersey (and back home again in St Ives), the final mural acquired the title “Porthmeor”. Porthmeor was the long, sandy beach immediately in front of No 3 Porthmeor Studio which Lanyon hired to paint three (very different) full-sized mural-gouaches on paper - before completing the final Porthmeor mural on canvas.  Today, Porthmeor is better-known for being the beach immediately in front of the St Ives Tate Gallery.

- Martin Lanyon