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Lot Essay
‘Landscape and Cup (Annunciation) ... is related to the confirmation of Sheila Lanyon’s pregnancy and the theme of generation that preoccupied the artist after he returned from the war in March 1946’ (T. Treves, Peter Lanyon: Catalogue Raisonné of The Oil Paintings and Three-Dimensional Works, London, 2018, p. 171).
Landscape and Cup (Annunciation), 1946 is one of Lanyon’s finest early works. This extremely rare work marks a pivotal moment in Lanyon’s life, when he returned to St Ives in March 1946, after serving five years in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. During this period Lanyon worked on a series of narrative works, entitled the 'Generation' paintings, which celebrated his domestic bliss with his new wife Sheila St John Browne and the birth of his first child Andrew in 1947.
Landscape and Cup (Annunciation) displays a duality between the figurative and the abstract, with Lanyon drawing on religious symbolism to express the joy of his first child. Critics have dissected this multi-faceted work, suggesting the cup to the right of the composition that is inscribed with a cross, denotes a chalice, which is used in the sacrament of Communion, thereby relating the spiritual union with Christ to the sacrament of earthly marriage. Andrew Causey also finds the notion of marriage is evident in Lanyon’s placement of his buildings, with the small construction in the centre of the work signifying an embryonic form. While Chris Stephens notes that the blue of the circle in the centre refers to the Virgin Mary and the Annunciation.
This harmony of tone and the interplay of landscape and still-life references can also be seen to refer to Ben Nicholson’s work of the period, whom he met in 1939 before the war. Landscape and Cup (Annunciation) portrays Lanyon’s re-engagement with the landscape and his life back in England after the war. Steeped in memory and familiarity, the artist imbues a sense of the mystical in the present work, which speaks of the overlapping of time and place.The work has exceptionally strong provenance having been gifted to Jonathan Lanyon, the artist’s son and then later having been in the collection of the seminal American art collector Stanley J. Seeger.
We are very grateful to Toby Treves for his assistance in cataloguing this work.
Landscape and Cup (Annunciation), 1946 is one of Lanyon’s finest early works. This extremely rare work marks a pivotal moment in Lanyon’s life, when he returned to St Ives in March 1946, after serving five years in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. During this period Lanyon worked on a series of narrative works, entitled the 'Generation' paintings, which celebrated his domestic bliss with his new wife Sheila St John Browne and the birth of his first child Andrew in 1947.
Landscape and Cup (Annunciation) displays a duality between the figurative and the abstract, with Lanyon drawing on religious symbolism to express the joy of his first child. Critics have dissected this multi-faceted work, suggesting the cup to the right of the composition that is inscribed with a cross, denotes a chalice, which is used in the sacrament of Communion, thereby relating the spiritual union with Christ to the sacrament of earthly marriage. Andrew Causey also finds the notion of marriage is evident in Lanyon’s placement of his buildings, with the small construction in the centre of the work signifying an embryonic form. While Chris Stephens notes that the blue of the circle in the centre refers to the Virgin Mary and the Annunciation.
This harmony of tone and the interplay of landscape and still-life references can also be seen to refer to Ben Nicholson’s work of the period, whom he met in 1939 before the war. Landscape and Cup (Annunciation) portrays Lanyon’s re-engagement with the landscape and his life back in England after the war. Steeped in memory and familiarity, the artist imbues a sense of the mystical in the present work, which speaks of the overlapping of time and place.The work has exceptionally strong provenance having been gifted to Jonathan Lanyon, the artist’s son and then later having been in the collection of the seminal American art collector Stanley J. Seeger.
We are very grateful to Toby Treves for his assistance in cataloguing this work.