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Art & Design from 1860

By Cheffins

Jan 28, 2016 - Jan 28, 2016

Set Reminder 2016-01-28 06:00:00 2016-01-28 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Art & Design from 1860 https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/cheffins/art-design-from-1860-1230
Cheffins antiquesandinteriors@cheffins.co.uk

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  § John Minton (British, 1917-1957) Study of Francis Minton painting inscribed upper right "Francis Minton / May 30th 1940" pen and ink 30 x 24cm (12 x 9in)
  Provenance: Purchased from Jeffrey Bernard by Nicholas and Elisabeth Luard. From the collection of Elisabeth Luard, Brynmeheryn. Other Notes: Francis John Minton (25 December 1917 - 20 January 1957) was an English painter, illustrator, stage designer and teacher. Minton was born in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, the second of three sons of Francis Minton, a solicitor, and his wife, Kate, née Webb. He studied art at St John's Wood School of Art from 1935 to 1938 and was greatly influenced by his fellow student Michael Ayrton, who shared his enthusiasm with him for the work of French Neo-Romantic painters. He spent eight months studying in France, frequently accompanied by Ayrton, and returned from Paris when the Second World War began. From 1943 to 1946 Minton taught illustration at the Camberwell College of Arts, and from 1946 to 1948 he was in charge of Drawing and Illustration at the Central School of Art and Design. At the same time he continued to draw and paint, sharing a studio for some years with Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde, and later with Keith Vaughan. Between 1945 and 1956 he had seven solo exhibitions at the Lefevre Gallery, as well as working as a tutor at the Painting School of the Royal College of Art in 1949, a post that he held until the year before his death. John Minton was painted in 1952 by Lucian Freud. In the mid-1950s, John Minton found himself increasingly sidelined by the popularity of abstracts. He suffered psychological problems, self-medicated with alcohol, and tragically committed suicide in 1957. Frances Spalding writes: "This drawing is a great puzzle. Minton was great friends with Michael Ayrton at this time and the style of drawing looks to me more like Ayrton than Minton, but the cartouche with Francis Minton inside it and the date 30th May 1940 is definitely in Minton's hand. He was baptised 'Francis John Minton', so he could have been playing around with his name, which Ayrton did more seriously, giving up his father's name Gould for his mother's name Ayrton, so that his name would appear earlier in catalogues that were alphabetically ordered. But sadly I can give you no adequate explanation of this drawing. It is not a drawing of Minton, so why he added the cartouche I do not know. The present drawing is an interesting testimony to the close friendship between Ayrton and Minton at that time. The following year they collaborated on designs for John Gielgud's production of Macbeth".
  One tiny hole to the left of the sitter's shoulder, loose in the frame and with dirt under the glass. A little loss of colour.
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  • Hammer Price	Premium (%)
    $0	20.00
    $100	18.00
    $1,000	15.00
    $10,000	10.00
    $100,000	8.00