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Lot Essay
Yorkshire-born Kenneth Rowntree is renowned for capturing the essential character of old buildings and landscapes in rural England and Wales. A prominent figure of the Great Bardfield Artists, Rowntree worked alongside fellow artists including John Aldridge R.A., Edward Bawden, and Eric Ravilious. Rowntree had briefly been taught by Ravilious during his studies at the Ruskin School of Drawing, and later went on to train at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Whilst the Great Bardfield Artists were diverse in style, they shared a mutual love of figurative art, a distinguishing factor from the St Ives School of artists in Cornwall, who, after the war, were chiefly interested in abstraction.
During the 1950s, the Great Bardfield Artists organised a series of exhibitions in their own homes which attracted national and international press attention. Positive reviews and the novelty of viewing the artworks in the homes of the artists who had created them, led to thousands visiting the remote village in Essex during the summer exhibitions of 1954, 1955 and 1958. Rowntree’s pictures reflect his warm and witty nature; usually landscapes and townscapes, the elements have a toy-like preciseness, brilliant jewel colouring and are quintessentially British in their depiction of the English countryside.
During the 1950s, the Great Bardfield Artists organised a series of exhibitions in their own homes which attracted national and international press attention. Positive reviews and the novelty of viewing the artworks in the homes of the artists who had created them, led to thousands visiting the remote village in Essex during the summer exhibitions of 1954, 1955 and 1958. Rowntree’s pictures reflect his warm and witty nature; usually landscapes and townscapes, the elements have a toy-like preciseness, brilliant jewel colouring and are quintessentially British in their depiction of the English countryside.