John Craxton, R.A. (1922-2009)

Craxton made a number of consistently inventive studies of washed-up trees in Welsh estuaries, such as Sandy Haven, when he was staying in Pembrokeshire in 1943 with Graham Sutherland. Often on different coloured papers, some are more like drawings, others — like this one — are taken to a greater degree of finish. All relate to the black and white oil painting Welsh Estuary Foreshore (1943) in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, one of Craxton’s more Miró-esque compositions. Blue Tree Root, on the other hand, has much in common with Sutherland, whose thoughts on landscape painting were an inspiration to Craxton. His lyrical interpretation of Welsh shores and fields also features in the pen drawings and lithographs he made to illustrate The Poet’s Eye, an anthology chosen by Geoffrey Grigson (1944); from this period dates some of the finest work he did in Great Britain before succumbing to the lure of Greece.

A.L.