- Artist
- Albert Houthuesen 1903–1979
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 940 × 686 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by Dr Edwin Charles Montgomery-Smith 1938
- Reference
- N04972
Catalogue entry
N04972 PAINTED IN A WELSH VILLAGE 1933
Inscr. ‘Albert Houthuesen 1933’ b.l.
Canvas, 37×27 (94×69).
Presented by Dr Edwin Charles Montgomery Smith 1938.
Coll: Acquired from the artist by his doctor, Montgomery Smith.
Exh: N.E.A.C., October–November 1933 (238).
Painted when the artist was staying in Wales (see N05328). He painted a portrait of the first collier he met, now in the Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield. He described the sitter of the present portrait as follows (letter of 23 March 1958): ‘I painted other canvases and made various drawings, and always people came to watch. Then one day I saw a really fantastic figure carrying a great bundle of wood on his back, and later this young man, Harry Jones, came to sit for the portrait you have. He sat four times, but now no one came, and after this I had great difficulty in finding other models. A village funeral was a procession with the coffin on a farm wagon, but alone, quite apart and leading the way, in a long black overcoat and bowler hat, carrying a bunch of wild flowers which he had gathered from the hedges was Harry Jones.’
Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I