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Presentation: Framed
Oil over pencil on paper, 8Q X 38 ins. (21.5 X 96.5 cms.)
Provenance: given by the artist to Charles Mahoney; thence by descent
Literature: Alan Powers, 'Labour of Love', Country Life, April 30 1987; Annabel Freyberg, 'The Heroine of Hilly Fields', The World of Interiors, January 2004
The murals at Brockley County School in South London (now Prendergast School for girls) were first started in 1933 and unveiled in 1936. The scheme was supervised by Charles Mahoney, who at the time was tutor in painting at the Royal College of Art, and undertaken by him and Evelyn Dunbar, who was a senior student. As well as contributing a large mural entitled The country girl and the pail of milk, Dunbar was responsible for decorating the 39-foot balcony. For this she devised a panoramic view of the school, in the setting of the nearby Hilly Fields. In an account to appear in the forthcoming book on Dunbar, Dr. Gill Clarke writes:
'In order to complete her preliminary sketches, which took 3-4 months, and to get the best view of the extensive buildings, Dunbar had to ascend the water tower of Lady Well Institution. In the Kent Messenger (January 1935), she described how she had to squeeze through a small trap-door and climb on to the top of an extremely narrow shaft, which led on to a tiny railed platform on the edge of the lead roof of the water tower, more than 100 feet above the ground. 'It was like being on a gas stove', Miss Dunbar told a Kent Messenger representative, 'and it was so hot with the sun beating down mercilessly that the water in my paint nearly boiled'. These sketches and the ten-foot long cartoon were purchased by Rothenstein (for five guineas and £25 respectively) for the Carlisle City Art Gallery (now Tullie House).'
It is probable that the oil sketch reproduced here, one of two that she gave to Mahoney, was worked up rapidly to give an outline of the colour and overall composition. Working on the Brockley murals together, Mahoney and Dunbar developed an extremely close relationship, sharing, as Rothenstein noted in his Studio article of 1936, ' a clear affinity of vision'. In 1937 they collaborated together on the book Gardener's Choice. Alan Powers points out that the Brockley Murals belong to a pastoral romantic tradition in English art, which flourished in the 1930s and is often too quickly dismissed as being merely imitative of Stanley Spencer (Country Life 30 April 1987).
Biography
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Presentation: Framed
Pen and ink
3 x 5 ins. (9 x 12 cm)
Provenance: Charles Mahoney
In a gilded oak flat section frame with outer knull, glazed
Drawings for Gardener’s Choice, a collaboration between Mahoney and Evelyn Dunbar, were produced during 1937; the book was published at the end of the same year by Routledge. The full page illustrations were produced by Mahoney, the vignettes and much of the text by Dunbar. As Elizabeth Bulkeley notes in her biographical essay, “They presented the plants that they liked to draw, paint and grow. The were sculptural and bold, yet subtle, and unusual for their time. Each was described lovingly, as if in sharing their favourite plants they were sharing their mutual happiness
Biography
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Presentation: Framed
Thinned oil on paper, with scratching out
10 1/4 x 15 in. (26 x 38 cms).
Provenance: from the collection of Charles Mahoney
In a gilded and natural wood flat section frame, glazed
This painting, which belonged to Charles Mahoney, is likely to date to the 1930’s when Dunbar and Mahoney collaborated together on the Brockley School Murals, (1932-36) and Gardener’s Choice, (1937). The arrangement of tulips in the middle foreground and cart seen on the right hand side are characteristic of
The pinky-yellow palette has much in common with Mahoney’s work of the period, and setting, especially the stone and brick wall in the foreground and the Almshouses in the background are reminiscent of Oak Cottage in Wrotham where Mahoney lived and worked.
We are grateful to Elizabeth Bulkeley and Dr Gill Clarke for assistance.
Biography
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Presentation: Framed
Pen and ink over pencil
3x 3 in. (8 x.8 cm), on a larger sheet
Provenance: Charles Mahoney
Biography
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Presentation: Framed
Pen and ink over pencil
5 x 5 in. (12.8 x 12.8 cm.), on a larger sheet
Provenance: Charles Mahoney
Biography
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Presentation: Mounted
Pen and ink
4 1/4 x 11 3/8 in. (11 x 29 cm.)
Provenance: Charles Mahoney
Drawings for Gardener’s Choice, a collaboration between Mahoney and Evelyn Dunbar, were produced during 1937; the book was published at the end of the same year by Routledge. The full page illustrations were produced by Mahoney, the vignettes and much of the text by Dunbar. As Elizabeth Bulkeley notes in her biographical essay, “They presented the plants that they liked to draw, paint and grow. The were sculptural and bold, yet subtle, and unusual for their time. Each was described lovingly, as if in sharing their favourite plants they were sharing their mutual happiness”.
Biography
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Presentation: Unmounted
Pen and ink and pencil
8 x 14 1/8 in. (20 x 36 cm.)
In a cream acid free mount with washes lines
Drawings for Gardener’s Choice, a collaboration between Mahoney and Evelyn Dunbar, were produced during 1937; the book was published at the end of the same year by Routledge. The full page illustrations were produced by Mahoney, the vignettes and much of the text by Dunbar. As Elizabeth Bulkeley notes in her biographical essay, “They presented the plants that they liked to draw, paint and grow. The were sculptural and bold, yet subtle, and unusual for their time. Each was described lovingly, as if in sharing their favourite plants they were sharing their mutual happiness
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