Mary Potter
Window Still Life, Chiswick
, c. 1937
Oil on canvas
20 x 16 inches
Inscribed verso
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Provenance
Arthur Tooths and Sons, London
Note: Potter was an early member of the Seven and Five Society, a group of artists formed in 1919 whose members included at various times John Piper, Ivon Hitchens and Ben and Winifred Nicholson. Classic Seven and Five work is characterised by clear colours, an interest in light, and a certain freshness and simplicity. Their direct and strong compositions often involved still life, sometimes combined with landscape seen through a window. This is a typical example in which a table-top still life is set against a curtained window looking out onto a view of the river Thames, near Chiswick. The view is from her own sitting room.
This a re-working of an earlier composition painted in 1929 now held by the Tate Gallery, London.