Ceri Richards (1903-1971)

'Richards's work from this period, during the unsettled and troubled time of the war's end and its aftermath, is characterised by brilliant and various figurative invention. There is a disconcerting diversity of subject matter, and many of the subjects and themes that were to reappear in later work, often in series of paintings, were tackled at this time in drawings or prints' (M. Gooding, Ceri Richards, Dumfriesshire, 2002, p. 78).
In an exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in 1946 the three great Force paintings were accompanied by drawings of musicians showing an early sign of his interest in Claude Debussy.