Folly in West Wycombe Park

In 1940 John Piper visited West Wycombe Park, seat of the Buckinghamshire branch of the Dashwood Baronetcy. This was in connection with a commission for the 'Recording the changing face of Britain' scheme (also known as ‘Recording Britain’) which had been established by Kenneth Clark, director of the National Gallery, to document the British landscape in the face of wartime threats. Resulting works, including Dashwood Mausoleum, West Wycombe, 1940 (Victoria and Albert Museum) were conventional in appearance, finding a place within the tradition of English topographical watercolour painting. But during 1940 John Piper’s personal style was evolving rapidly and it is from this period that some of his most distinctive and immediately recognisable paintings emerged, with the current lot being a particularly attractive example. Painted in the winter of 1940-1941, the work displays a collage-style juxtaposition of forms, colours and textures, reminding us that during most of the 1930s Piper, influenced by the modern movement, was a leading British abstract painter. Meanwhile its palette, atmosphere and intensity reflects Piper’s well-documented enthusiasm for the work of Samuel Palmer (1805-1881), the Romantic artist and associate of William Blake. The subject of the current lot is one of a number of follies found at West Wycombe Park. Known as St Crispin’s, it is a cottage built to resemble a chapel, seemingly intended for occupation by local shoemakers and named in honour of their trade's patron saint.

A work on paper, closely related to the present lot, dated 1941 and entitled View of St Crispin's Folly, West Wycombe was one of a group of West Wycombe Park subjects shown at Marlborough Fine Art, John Piper: Georgian Arcadia, September - October 1987, no. 9 and illustrated on p. 14 of the exhibition catalogue.

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