Price on request

Signed and dated and titled on the reverse
15 x 24 ins

Provenance: Marjorie Guthrie
Exhibited: Drain Gallery, September 1960
Price on request

Oil
Titled and dated on the reverse
20 x 28 inches

Provenance: Marjorie Guthrie
Price on request

Signed and titled on the reverse
Oil on prepared paper with scratching out
18 x 22 1/2 ins

Provenance: The Artists family
£3,000

Signed, inscribed with title and dated in pen and ink
Gouache, crayon and pencil, on tracing papers
54 x 14 cm (sight)

Provenance:Marjorie Guthrie
Not for sale

Signed and dated on the reverse
Oil on board
11 3/4 x 9 ins

Provenance: Marjorie Guthrie
Not for sale

signed and date with scratching out, signed in pencil on the reverse
oil on panel
16 x 11 3/4

Provenanace: Marjorie Guthrie

This historically important view of the interior of Stephensons studio dates to the year he first took over the lease from Walter Sickert. Soon to be joined by John Skeaping, Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, Herbert Read and Henry Moore, the Mall Studios remained Stephensons home for the next 46 years.

Not for sale

Signed and titled on the reverse; labelks to the reverse, "not for sale"
Oil on board
48 x 36 ins.

Provenance: Marjorie Guthrie
Exhibition: Drian Gallery, September 1960
Literature: Simon Guthrie, John Cecil Stephenson, 1997, p. 119, ill. p. 150
Not for sale

Oil on board
Signed and titled on the reverse
43 x 40

Provenance: Marjorie Guthrie
Not for sale

Signed, dated and inscribed with title on the reverse
Oil and pen and ink, on prepared paper, with scratching out
16 x 22 1/2 ins

Provenance: Marjorie Guthrie
Not for sale

Signed, inscribed with title and dated in pen and ink
Gouache, crayon and pencil, squared
54 x 16 cm (sight)

Provenance:Marjorie Guthrie
Sold

Signed and dated (studio stamp), oil on paper, each 7 X 5 ins. (17.8 X 12.7 cms.)
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist's family

These abstracts form part of a series of small sketches made during World War II as preparation for larger works (materials being in short supply), which Stephenson executed in the 1950s. They were stimulated by the devastation resulting from the bombing of London (also recorded figuratively by Stephenson during this period). Stephenson made his first abstract paintings around 1932. In 1934 he exhibited with the 7 & 5 Society, along with Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and John Piper. Though not today as well known as many of his contemporaries he was one of the key figures in the development of abstract art in Britain in the mid twentieth century.
Sold

Signed and dated (studio stamp), oil on paper, each 7 X 5 ins. (17.8 X 12.7 cms.)
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist's family

These abstracts form part of a series of small sketches made during World War II as preparation for larger works (materials being in short supply), which Stephenson executed in the 1950s. They were stimulated by the devastation resulting from the bombing of London (also recorded figuratively by Stephenson during this period). Stephenson made his first abstract paintings around 1932. In 1934 he exhibited with the 7 & 5 Society, along with Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and John Piper. Though not today as well known as many of his contemporaries he was one of the key figures in the development of abstract art in Britain in the mid twentieth century.

Sold

Signed and dated (studio stamp), oil on paper, each 7 X 5 ins. (17.8 X 12.7 cms.)
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist's family

These abstracts form part of a series of small sketches made during World War II as preparation for larger works (materials being in short supply), which Stephenson executed in the 1950s. They were stimulated by the devastation resulting from the bombing of London (also recorded figuratively by Stephenson during this period). Stephenson made his first abstract paintings around 1932. In 1934 he exhibited with the 7 & 5 Society, along with Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and John Piper. Though not today as well known as many of his contemporaries he was one of the key figures in the development of abstract art in Britain in the mid twentieth century.
Sold

Signed and dated (studio stamp), oil on paper, each 7 X 5 ins. (17.8 X 12.7 cms.)
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist's family

These abstracts form part of a series of small sketches made during World War II as preparation for larger works (materials being in short supply), which Stephenson executed in the 1950s. They were stimulated by the devastation resulting from the bombing of London (also recorded figuratively by Stephenson during this period). Stephenson made his first abstract paintings around 1932. In 1934 he exhibited with the 7 & 5 Society, along with Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and John Piper. Though not today as well known as many of his contemporaries he was one of the key figures in the development of abstract art in Britain in the mid twentieth century.
Sold

Signed, titled and dated on the reverse
Oil on canvas, 24 × 18 in.(61 × 45.7 cm.)
Provenance: Marjorie Guthrie,t he artist's daughter-in-law
Exhibited: Cecil Stephenson, Drian Gallery, London,September 1960, no.16
Literature: Simon Guthrie, The Life and Art of John Cecil Stephenson, Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria,1997, p.119, repr. p.150

'The vicissitudes of the art world are such that it is possible for an artist of great talent to work for a lifetime in obscurity, and only towards the end of his career find the recognition that is due to him. He was one of the earliest artists in the country to develop a completely abstract style, a conscious craftsman ... he has created a world of visual delight that must at last be shared with a wide and appreciative public' (Herbert Read, introduction to Cecil Stephenson, exh. cat., Drian Gallery, London, 1960).

In April 1959 Stephenson met Halima Nalecz, the ebullient, Juno-esque owner of the recently opened Drian Gallery in London. She invited Stephenson to prepare for a one-man show (surprisingly his first), which took place in September 1960. He had about eighteen months to prepare for it. This resulted in a remarkable body of abstract work,most of which, according to their titles, are analogous to aspects of music. Some paintings were on a fairly modest scale (24× 18 in.) but at least ten were quite large (usually 48× 36 in.). Many refer back to small sketches in oil on paper that Stephenson had made during the Second World War, materials being in short supply. Some are fairly thinly painted in oil on paper; others are painted in heavy impasto on canvas and board. With the latter there is a dramatic gestural quality that shows an awareness of American Abstract Art, with which Stephenson was familiar through his activities as Chairman of the Hampstead Artists' Council. The smaller pictures were priced at around £50; the larger ones £100.

At the time of the exhibition, which was a critical if not a commercial success, Stephenson gave an interview (his last, as he was shortly to suffer a stroke, after which he was tragically incapacitated):

'Many misuse the word 'abstract'; Kandinsky explains it very well. Abstraction is a matter of condensing everything down to certain forms, such as the vertical (dynamic), the horizontal (static), and the diagonal somewhere between the two. The movement of a straight line runs across the canvas, but it can be broken up,like the teeth of a saw,to make quite a different effect.
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Collage and watercolour, signed with studio stamp to reverse

Thumbnail panels:

Cecil Stephenson 1889-1965

Painter, born in Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham. He studied at Darlington Technical College, 1906-08, at the Leeds School of Art, 1908-14, the RCA, 1914-18, and Slade, 1918. Between 1915 and 1918 he did war work, making tools. In 1919 he took on Sickert's studio, 6 Mall Studios, Hampstead, where he was later joined by Herbert Read, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore. From 1922 until 1955 he was Head of Art Teaching in the Architectural Department, Northern Polytechnic, Holloway Road. In 1932 he began making his first abstract works, exhibiting during the next decade in many abstract and constructive shows in England, France and the USA. In 1934 he exhibited with the 7&5 Society, along with the likes of Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and John Piper. During World War II he returned partly to figurative work, making paintings of the Blitz. From the 1950s he returned to large abstract paintings, realising many of the abstract compositions he had sketched out on a small scale in the previous decade, when materials had been in short supply. In 1951 he made a l0 ¥ 30 ft. fluorescent paint mural for the Festival of Britain, and began working with ply glass for murals. In 1958 he suffered three strokes, which left him unable to move or talk. Partly for this reason he is today less well-known than many of his contemporaries, but he was one of the key figures in the development of abstract art in Britain. He is represented in the collection of the Tate and internationally.

Selected Literature Cecil Stephenson 1889-1965, Fischer Fine Art, London, 1976.

Simon Guthrie, The Life and Art of John Cecil Stephenson: A Victorian Painter's Journey to Abstract Expressionism, Cartmel Press Associates, 1997.