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Lot Essay
'I love flowers. I love flowers for painting ... One can read into a good flower picture the same problems that one faces with a landscape: near or far, meanings and movements of shapes and brush strokes. You keep playing with the object' (see Tate Gallery, Ivon Hitchens Broadsheet, 1989).
In 1940, Hitchens and his family left their Hampstead home, and the wartime bombing raids on London, for the peace and tranquillity of West Sussex. Moving to the countryside contributed greatly to a change in Hitchens’ style in the early 1940s, when the present lot was painted. This period was a great turning point for Hitchens: not only did his palette become more varied and bright, but his compositions became more abstracted. The still life naturally lent itself to Hitchens’ new style and his depictions of flowers from this period are among his most sought after works.
In 1940, Hitchens and his family left their Hampstead home, and the wartime bombing raids on London, for the peace and tranquillity of West Sussex. Moving to the countryside contributed greatly to a change in Hitchens’ style in the early 1940s, when the present lot was painted. This period was a great turning point for Hitchens: not only did his palette become more varied and bright, but his compositions became more abstracted. The still life naturally lent itself to Hitchens’ new style and his depictions of flowers from this period are among his most sought after works.