Paul Feiler (b. 1918)

Although not dated, the present work can be placed within the context of Feiler's early 1950s paintings. Discussing these paintings, John Steer comments, 'The works have something of the character of visual research and they are notable for their severity of structure and absence of any overt emotional or sensuous appeal. But although they lack romance and sweetness and treat a rather neutral range of subjects with an almost self-abnegatory austerity, we yet find floating, as it were, to the surface within them the motifs which have become central in Feiler's later paintings and are at the personal essence of his art' (J. Steer, exhibition catalogue, Paul Feiler, Crawford Centre for the Arts, University of St Andrews, September 1982. p. 10).