Summer Steps

Details

Ivon Hitchens (1893-1979)
Summer Steps
stamped twice with the studio stamp (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
18 x 20 in. (45.7 x 50.8 cm.)
Executed circa the 1940s.

Provenance

A gift from Mollie Hitchens to the present owner.

Literature

Exhibition catalogue, Ivon Hitchens, Newtown, Oriel 31, 1987, pp. 34, 40, no. 16, illustrated.

Exhibited

Newtown, Oriel 31, Ivon Hitchens, August - September 1987, no. 16.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

Brought to you by

Philip Harley

pharley@christies.com +44 207 389 2687

Lot Essay

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.

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