John Minton (1917-1957)

This was probably painted during or shortly after the 1952 Christmas trip to Morocco which Minton made in the company of his friend Norman Bowler, who later became a well-known actor. Morocco, and especially Tangiers, had been made popular by Paul Bowles’ novel The Sheltering Sky. In addition Minton was attracted to the colours of Morocco and its rampant homosexuality. Taroudant is sited in the Sous Valley in Southern Morocco. In December 1953, in an exhibition of his recent work at the Lefevre Gallery, London, Minton showed watercolours of Scandinavia, paintings of Morocco and a series of portraits of young men. The warmest praise came from John Berger: ‘His imaginative insight is proved amongst other things by his exact evocation of temperature. One feels very precisely the sunlit coldness of the water in the fjords, the absorbed ancient warmth of the walls in Morocco.’

We are very grateful to Professor Frances Spalding for preparing this catalogue entry.