Beach Scene (1949)

John Leith Craxton

oil on canvas

Classification:

Painting

Materials:

Oil, Canvas

Physical Object Description:

Cubist style painting summarising in four section beach life, hotel, path to beach, play in water and bronzing on the beach. AIΓΛH (Greek) on building in background means glamour in English.

Dimensions:

99 x 75.5 cm

Accession Number:

27.56

Credit:

Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 1956

Scheme:

Historic Purchase by Purchaser (1914-2008)

Ownership history:

Purchased by Sir Kenneth Clark (1903-1983) for the Contemporary Art Society, 1951; presented to Gallery Oldham, 1956

Relationship:

Kenneth MacKenzie Clark Gallery Oldham

Subject:

Cubism, Beach, Play, Sand, Water

John Craxton, having had his first important solo exhibition in 1944 at the Leicester Galleries in London, was invited to go to Greece in 1946 by Peter Norton [Lady Norton] who had championed him at The London Gallery which she had established in 1936. He shared a house in Poros for a short time with his friend the painter Lucian Freud (1922–2011) with whom he had also been sharing premises in St John's Wood, London. Then in 1948 Craxton went to Crete where this cubist-style beach scene could have been executed and where he was to finally settle 12 years later. He said: “I felt at home at once. As my first contact with the Mediterranean and the discovery of the action of light, the way light and shadow behave, the arrival in Greece was astonishing. . . . This new world fitted me artistically, and suited me socially and financially.”

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