WILLIAM RATCLIFFE (BRITISH, 1870-1955)

The present drawing depicts a quintessential scene of a Swedish farm, featuring a woman and child going about their daily tasks. Inspired by his great friend, and Camden Town Group founder, Harold Gilman’s (1876-1919) visit to Sweden in 1912, Ratcliffe began his own exploration of the Scandinavian region in 1913. Ratcliffe was heavily influenced by the Swedish landscape and F. Farmar concludes that ‘Swedish pictures represent the peak of [Ratcliffe’s] powers as a painter. They have a confidence of design and strength of colour and pattern which is lacking in his later work’ (F. Farmar, The Painters of Camden Town, London, 1988, p.159).
The frame of this drawing was designed and made by Stanley Parker, a woodworker who was assistant to Charles Voysey, and who Ratcliffe lived with in Letchworth in around 1906, where he also met Gilman.