IVON HITCHENS (1893-1979)

A rhythmic arrangement of floral motifs, Still Life is a powerful image from circa 1930. Painted in varying degrees of abstraction, the artist has delighted in his rendering of the flowers, articulating the ox eye daisy at the top of the bouquet with particular clarity. To the right of the vase, three hanging fuchsias are evenly spaced and echo the spacing of the pattern on the ceramic. Yellow flowers are reduced to masses of high-key colour, the muted background permeating these forms in a deliberate attempt to flatten the picture plane. Hitchens later recalled: 'I love flowers. I love flowers for painting. It's only that life's too short - one can't always do flower paintings - not a carefully arranged bunch such as people ought not to do - but doing a mixed bunch in a natural way. One can read into a good flower picture the same problems that one faces with a landscape, near and far, meanings and movements of shapes and brush strokes. You keep playing with the object' (I. Hitchens quoted in A. Bowness, Ivon Hitchens, London, 1973, p. 13). In the present work, we can also see Hitchens beginning to absorb the developments of cubism through his subtle manipulation of space, most evident in the altered perspective of the table.

We are very grateful to Peter Khoroche and John Hitchens for their assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.