Summer Steps

The house the Hitchens' lived in on Lavington Common was mostly a single storey dwelling, and Ivon frequently climbed up onto the flat roof for the benefit of its vantage point, in order to survey his kingdom and decide where he would paint next. A rickety ladder was not the best or safest means of ascending, so a set of wooden stairs was built, featured here catching the evening sun, the new pinewood glowing golden orange. Note the way the different elements of the composition are emphasised and ordered by the use of white or blank canvas surrounding them — particularly the pine planking. This was a typical Hitchens strategy, and can be seen also in lots 312 and 354. Leaving areas of bare white canvas was one of the chief characteristics of his work, intended to isolate the colour patches so that they might register all the more effectively on the viewer’s nervous system, and be thoroughly experienced in relation to each other in terms of shape, area, weight and meaning.

A.L.