Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979)

This French river scene was painted when Claude Flight, the great exponent of the colour linocut which he used to depict speed and movement, invited Hitchens to stay with him in August 1924 at Chantemesle, near Vernon, on the Seine. Two other artists joined them, Harold Williamson and Percy Jowett, and they all stayed in one of the caves used as a summer holiday retreat, dug into the chalk hillside. From the subject of Red House (lot 336) — depicted here in front of the chalk cliffs — this watercolour might also date from that same French visit in 1924, and not to the earlier date of 1922-23.

A.L.