John Piper, C.H. (1903-1992)

By the 1970s frontal, vertical images of Somerset or East Anglian church towers, presented individually or as groups, had become a well-established and distinctive aspect of John Piper's architectural and topographical output. The works exist in a variety of media including gouaches, oils, partly-abstract reliefs, lithographs and screenprints. Piper may have been influenced by Piet Mondrian's tackling of similar subject-matter, also using various degrees of abstraction (an example being Sun, Church in Zeeland; Zoutelande Church Facade, 1909–10, Tate Collection). The present work - handled by Arthur Jeffress Gallery before 1961 and dating from the late 1950s - is one of the earliest of Piper's church tower series, and the church at Huish Episcopi, near Langport, Somerset, was a favourite subject which the artist revisited in later decades.

Assis Chateaubriand (1892-1968) was a journalist, lawyer, entrepreneur and Ambassador of Brazil in the UK from 1957 to 1961. He founded the São Paulo Museum of Art in 1947.

We are very grateful to Rev. Dr Stephen Laird for preparing this catalogue entry.