Biography Enquire about this picture£2,900

Presentation: Framed
Inscribed on the reverse, Women washing at Musul Mesopotamia
watercolour 13 x 10 1/2 ins. (33 x 26.7 cms)

Mosul is Iraq's third largest city, situated 400 km north of Baghdad situated on the west bank of the Tigris River, close to the ruined Assyrian city of Nineveh.
Biography Enquire about this picturePrice on request

Presentation: Framed

Signed R.C. Carline in pencil at the top, dated 1926 and titled on an old paper label.

Gouache, 21 1/2 x 14 3/4 in.
Biography Sold

Presentation: Framed
inscribed on the reverse '63 U. Spencer', tempera, 61¾ x 37¾ ins. (156.8 x 95.8 cms.)
Provenance: Unity Spencer. Unity Spencer was the daughter of Hilda Carline and Stanley Spencer and the artist's niece.
Literature: The Spencers and Carlines in Hampstead in the 1920s, Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham, 1973; Richard Carline, D'Offay Gallery, 1975 (with a foreword by the artist)

The painting depicts the artist Gilbert Spencer and the Carlines' maid, Janet Piggott. The setting is likely to be 47 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, home of the Carline family and in the 1920s a popular meeting place for many artists living in Hampstead. Gilbert's brother Stanley Spencer lived with the Carlines and in 1925 married Carline's sister Hilda, to whose daughter this painting belonged.

An interior figure group of the same period and location, the Carline family round the dining table at 47 Downshire Hill, bought by the Contemporary Art Society in 1923 for the Tate, was later destroyed in a flood. An outstanding related painting, Gathering on the Terrace at 47 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, was acquired by the Ferens City Art Gallery, Hull, in 1995.

We are grateful to Michael Dickens for his help in cataloguing this painting.
Biography Sold

Presentation: Framed
Signed and dated, inscribed on the reverse, 'Jas Wood, sketch for "Group", 1924'
Oil on canvas, 22 X 14 ins. (56 X 35.5 cms.)
Provenance: Richard and Nancy Carline; Albert Wood, the sitter's grandson
Exhibited: Cookham Festival, The Spencers and Carlines in the 1920s, 1973; Anthony d'Offay, Richard Carline, no. 16

Gathering on the terrace at 47 Downshire Hill is one of Carline's masterpieces. In the Introduction to his own exhibition (Antony D'Offay Gallery, 1975), Carline recalled:

'In 1921, I decided to attend the Slade under Henry Tonks. About this time, I painted a large family group seated round the dining table at 47 Downshire Hill, in Hampstead. Eddie Marsh bought it for the Contemporary Art Society but, alas, it was destroyed in the Tate Gallery flood. Three years later I painted a still larger family group on the terrace at Downshire Hill with Henry Lamb and Stanley Spencer, who was soon to marry my sister Hilda.'

Gathering on the Terrace at 47 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, was acquired by the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, in 1995. On this occasion, Ann Bukantas, then Keeper of Fine Art wrote: 'Gathering, a beautifully orchestrated group portrait, is one of Carline's most important works, gaining added historical significance from the people it depicts and the nature of their relationships. The setting, 47 Downshire Hill, was the home of the Carline family and in the late 1920s became a popular meeting place for many artists living in Hampstread, who met for sketching and to discuss their artistic aims. Those portrayed, from left to right, are: Stanley Spencer, James (Jas) Wood, Kate Foster, Hilda Carline, Richard Hartley, Henry Lamb, and Anne and Sidney Carline .. Of Gathering Carline has stated he "sought to convey the conflicting personalities gathering at our house".. Sketched from life, each figure, while distinctly part of the group, stands alone as a strong individual, characterised within its own independent portrait' Ann Bukantas, NACF Review, 1995, p. 91.

James Wood (1889-1975) was a painter, writer and aesthete. He lived at 18 Upper Park Road, Hampstead, and was part of the artistic circle of close friends who in the 1920's gathered around the Carlines' home, 47 Downshire Hill. In 1926 he published an autobiography, New World Vistas. He worked equally successfully as a figurative and abstract painter, (see cats. 16 and 70).
Biography Sold

Presentation: Framed
Signed, dated and inscribed on the reverse: ‘Painted from life in the garden at 47 Downshire Hill, Hampstead, 1924’
Canvas on board, 24 × 14½ in. (61 × 36.8 cm.)
Provenance: Richard and Nancy Carline; private collection since c. 1984
Exhibited: The Ruskin Drawing School under Sydney Carline and his Staff, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, July 1977 (no. 26); Richard Carline, Camden Arts Centre, London, touring show, 1983
Literature: The Spencers and Carlines in the 1920s, Cookham, Berkshire, 1973; Richard Carline, Anthony d’Offay Gallery, London [n.d.] (no. 16)

‘In 1921, I decided to attend the Slade under Henry Tonks. About this time, I painted a large family group seated round the dining table at 47 Downshire Hill, in Hampstead. Eddie Marsh bought it for the Contemporary Art Society but, alas, it was destroyed in the Tate Gallery flood. Three years later I painted a still larger family group on the terrace at Downshire Hill with Henry Lamb and Stanley Spencer, who was soon to marry my sister Hilda’ (Richard Carline, introduction to his own exh. cat.,Anthony d’Offay Gallery, 1975).

It is interesting to note that in both the (destroyed) Tate composition and the
finished Ferens Art Gallery painting for which this work is a study, Spencer is shown apart from the main group, leaning with arms folded and head bowed, deep in thought.

Gathering on the Terrace at 47 Downshire Hill, Hampstead was acquired by the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, in 1995. On this occasion, Ann Bukantas, then Keeper of Fine Art, wrote:

‘Gathering, a beautifully orchestrated group portrait, is one of Carline’s most
important works, gaining added historical significance from the people it
depicts and the nature of their relationships. The setting, 47 Downshire Hill,
was the home of the Carline family and in the late 1920s became a popular
meeting place for many artists living in Hampstead, who met for sketching and to discuss their artistic aims. Those portrayed, from left to right, are Stanley Spencer, James (Jas) Wood, Kate Foster, Hilda Carline, Richard Hartley, Henry Lamb, and Anne and Sidney Carline … Of Gathering, Carline has stated he “sought to convey the conflicting personalities gathering at our house”. Sketched from life, each figure, while distinctly part of the group, stands alone as a strong individual, characterised within its own independent portrait’ (Ann Bukantas, NACF Review, 1995, p. 91).

Thumbnail panels:

Richard Carline 1896-1980

Painter, writer and administrator, Carline was born in Oxford. His father, George Carline, his mother, Anne, and brother Sydney, his sister Hilda (Mrs Stanley Spencer) and his wife, Nancy, were all painters. Carline in 1913 attended Percyval Tudor-Hart's Academie de Peinture, in Paris. After a short period teaching, Carline served in World War I and was appointed an Official War Artist. With his brother he became noted for war pictures from the air. He was elected LG in 1920, at which time the Carlines' Hampstead home became a centre for artists such as Henry Lamb, John Nash and Mark Gertler. During this period Carline was clearly influenced by Stanley Spencer, transforming everyday scenes into something monumental. Carline achieved this, however, without exaggerating form or gestures to the degree that Spencer did. Between 1924 and 1929 Carline taught at the Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford. He had his first solo show at Goupil Gallery in 1931. The mid-1930s saw Carline involved in Negro art, organising a show at Adams Gallery in 1935, and contributing the main text to Arts of West Africa, edited by Michael Sadler. During World War II Carline supervised camouflage of factories and airfields. He was involved in AIA, helping to found the Hampstead Artists' Council in 1944. In 1946-47 he was appointed as the first Art Counsellor to UNESCO, and from 1955 to 1974 was chief examiner in art for the Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. His books include Pictures in the Post: the Story of the Picture Postcard, 1959; Draw They Must, 1968; and Stanley Spencer at War, 1978. In 1975 the D'Offay Gallery held a Richard Carline exhibition for which the artist wrote the foreword. Carline died in Hampstead and in 1983 Camden Arts Centre organised a memorial exhibition. The Imperial War Museum holds his work, including the outstanding and pioneering series of paintings, from World War I, based on observations made from aeroplanes.

Selected Literature: The Spencers and Carlines in Hampstead in the 1920s, Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham, 1973. Richard Carline, D'Offay Gallery, 1975. Elizabeth Cowling, Richard Carline, Camden Arts Centre, London, 1983. The Art of Hilda Carline, Mrs Stanley Spencer, Lincolnshire County Council, 1999, pp. 15, 22 and 23.