The Camden Town Group in Context

Purchased from the artist 1942.

Pinks in a Vase is painted on primed, stretched linen canvas. The cloth has a plain, very fine weave and it is attached with steel-coated tacks to a softwood stretcher; ‘Made in England’ is stamped onto each of the four stretcher members. The canvas appears to have been commercially prepared with an animal glue sizing and white oil-type priming, which has been smoothly and evenly applied and retains little of the fine texture of the cloth.

The artist initially drew in the main compositional elements in thinned blue paint working directly onto the white ground; this is found in all of his works in the Tate collection. The background was then blocked in leaving an unpainted area of reserve for the flowers. The wall to the left in the light and the gingham table-cloth were also probably left unpainted at this stage and were later integrated into the picture by sparing use of short brushstrokes, leaving the priming exposed. The bottle and vase are most densely painted with fluid intermixed colours. The flowers are delicately rendered with a few deft impasto touches. A few final dabs of cool light grey to the left wall soften the density of paint and introduce a sense of light and atmosphere. The painting appears to have been quickly executed from life and the surface remains unvarnished.

Manson’s flower pictures appear to have been painted in his home at 98 Hampstead Way in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Frequently, they include elements of furniture that indicate the domestic setting. The checked table-cloth in Pinks in a Vase also appears in Still Life with Red Roses of 1939 (private collection).1 Here the table is placed against Manson’s bookshelves, and it seems likely he moved the table around for different paintings: in Pinks in a Vase it is in a different place or room. In the background the frame of a painting is just visible on the wall. On the table to the right of the vase is a tin with a yellow label; on the left is something difficult to read but may be intended simply to be wrinkles in the tablecloth.

Of Manson’s love of nature, his friend R.R. Tatlock wrote that the artist ‘found himself inspired most enjoyably when confronted with Nature’s most abundantly luscious gifts’.2 Likewise, the critic Charles Marriott wrote in the foreword to Manson’s 1925 exhibition:

It is difficult to ascertain the date Pinks in a Vase was painted with any certainty, as the work is not dated and Manson made many flower paintings over a long period. Manson was Director of the Tate Gallery from 1930 until 1938. This painting was purchased from the artist in 1942, perhaps in part owing to Manson’s financial difficulties,4 which suggests that it was probably painted around that time.