.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Painted in 1929, Crocuses and Daffodils in Pots echoes the artist’s view about the ephemeral through its depiction of blooming spring flowers. Three terracotta pots dominate the composition, replete with blossoming spring bulbs. Youthful cobalt green leaves stand tall as the flowers coloured yellow, violet and white sway with open faces. The sense of seasonality of these flowers is tangibly apparent; it seems as though the white crocus on the left has been captured just as it unfurled its petals in response to the warmth of springtime. Wood’s youthful outlook on life, aged just twenty-eight, is reflected in the present work’s depiction of cyclical seasonality. Wood’s untimely death the year after the present work was painted is fittingly commented upon by Eric Newton: ‘fate allowed him to live just long enough for his work to be an outstanding event in the history of British art’ (E. Newton, Christopher Wood 1901-1930, London, 1938, p. 13).
It is said that Wood painted quickly and without hesitation. This ease of execution and confident grip of his craft was likely learnt from his bohemian existence in Paris and the friends he surrounded himself with there. Indeed, shortly before he painted this work, Wood’s contact with artists in Paris was unrivalled by British artists. However, in contrast to the series of still lifes he painted in 1925, which exist as developmental explorations of the form and expression of Vincent Van Gogh’s work, whom he greatly admired, the present work reveals Wood’s unique artistic vision as the 1920s came to a close.
The close friendship between Winifred Nicholson and Wood resulted in a tremendous artistic exchange from their very first meeting in 1926. This partnership acted as a key turning-point in Wood’s career, ultimately resulting in the artist’s development of his individual artistic vocabulary in the late 1920s. Wood’s stays in Cumbria and Cornwall over the Spring, Summer, and Autumn of 1928 were times of prolific artistic activity and inspiration for the artist. During periods apart in this year, Winifred would send Wood bunches of Spring flowers to Paris. Richard Ingleby writes: ‘Winifred’s link to Wood was colour … their paintings come closest in their depiction of flowers (R. Ingleby, Christopher Wood: An English Painter, London, 1995, p. 184). Indeed, Winifred was a colourist at heart and although Wood had learnt colour theory from his Parisian friends, among them Pablo Picasso, it was through his connection with Nicholson that he truly, too, became a colourist. Eric Newton describes: ‘without their colour Christopher Wood’s paintings would still retain their intensity and their solidity, but they would lose that delectable appeal to the senses’ (op. cit., p. 54). The present work exemplifies this in the brightness of the flowers in conversation with the subdued textures of the ochres, pale greys, greens, and blues of the stone wall. As the artist and critic, Eric Newton, remarked in 1938: ‘one must be content with saying that Christopher Wood possessed the gift of making everyday things both magical and mystical, and of performing the miracle effortlessly’ (ibid, p. 49)
It is said that Wood painted quickly and without hesitation. This ease of execution and confident grip of his craft was likely learnt from his bohemian existence in Paris and the friends he surrounded himself with there. Indeed, shortly before he painted this work, Wood’s contact with artists in Paris was unrivalled by British artists. However, in contrast to the series of still lifes he painted in 1925, which exist as developmental explorations of the form and expression of Vincent Van Gogh’s work, whom he greatly admired, the present work reveals Wood’s unique artistic vision as the 1920s came to a close.
The close friendship between Winifred Nicholson and Wood resulted in a tremendous artistic exchange from their very first meeting in 1926. This partnership acted as a key turning-point in Wood’s career, ultimately resulting in the artist’s development of his individual artistic vocabulary in the late 1920s. Wood’s stays in Cumbria and Cornwall over the Spring, Summer, and Autumn of 1928 were times of prolific artistic activity and inspiration for the artist. During periods apart in this year, Winifred would send Wood bunches of Spring flowers to Paris. Richard Ingleby writes: ‘Winifred’s link to Wood was colour … their paintings come closest in their depiction of flowers (R. Ingleby, Christopher Wood: An English Painter, London, 1995, p. 184). Indeed, Winifred was a colourist at heart and although Wood had learnt colour theory from his Parisian friends, among them Pablo Picasso, it was through his connection with Nicholson that he truly, too, became a colourist. Eric Newton describes: ‘without their colour Christopher Wood’s paintings would still retain their intensity and their solidity, but they would lose that delectable appeal to the senses’ (op. cit., p. 54). The present work exemplifies this in the brightness of the flowers in conversation with the subdued textures of the ochres, pale greys, greens, and blues of the stone wall. As the artist and critic, Eric Newton, remarked in 1938: ‘one must be content with saying that Christopher Wood possessed the gift of making everyday things both magical and mystical, and of performing the miracle effortlessly’ (ibid, p. 49)