Ivon Hitchens 1893-1979
Arched Trees No 8, 1957
oil on canvas
20¼ x 45 ins


Provenance
Waddington Galleries, London
Private collection, USA



The present painting shares many of its characteristics with two of Hitchens’ most successful series of paintings, the Winter Walk series of 1948 and the Firwood Ride series of 1957-8. Both of these groups used as their subject the Firwood Drive in the woods near the artist’s home.

In his series paintings, Hitchens attempted to capture the changing patterns of nature through the seasons, observing how the different colours and light effects of each fresh attempt brought new life to a familiar and well-loved setting.

Arched Trees No.8 is rich with autumnal colour, the right hand side of the painting resplendent in deep reddish browns, the left filled with a range of fresh blues and indigos hinting at the skies of a late afternoon. Hitchens use of the wide canvas intentionally draws a panorama too wide to be read at a single glance. He pulls the viewer across the image, taking us through each section and on to the next, through tangled branches and enticing vistas, echoing the real sense of enjoyment found in taking in the breadth of a landscape, seeing it as a whole without the need to home in on the minutiae. Hitchens’ ability to capture a sense of place is one that other artists of his generation also sought out, and a useful parallel can be drawn with the landscape and architectural work of his contemporary John Piper.