Peter Lanyon 1918-1964
Corsham Towers, 1951
oil on board on artist's backboard
31½ by 8¾ inches
signed twice and dated; signed, dated and titled verso

Provenance
Frank Walker
Private Collection, Canada
Thence by descent

Exhibited
London, Gimpel Fils, Peter Lanyon: Exhibition of Paintings, March 1952, cat no.20

Literature
Andrew Causey, intro. Naum Gabo, Peter Lanyon, His Painting, Aidan Ellis, London 1971, p17, cat no.38, illus b/w pl.16

Andrew Lanyon, Peter Lanyon 1918 - 1964, Andrew Lanyon, Penzance, 1990, p111 illus colour



Lanyon began teaching at Corsham Court, home of the Bath Academy of Art, in 1950 and his arrival there coincided with the period during which he was working on Porthleven, 1950. Porthleven was Lanyon's entry for the 1951 Festival of Britain exhibition and was subsequently acquired by the Tate Gallery. This major oil represented a radical leap forward in British painting, Lanyon's synthesis of viewpoints, actual, mythical, historical and imagined, created a new way of portraying the landscape which captured both the physical terrain and the artist's subjective experience of it.

In preparation for large-scale oils Lanyon would make many smaller drawings, gouaches and constructions to work through his ideas. These in turn would throw up new ideas and so in turn further works. The personal connections and trains of thought moving through the paintings meant that many of his paintings from the early fifties were closely intertwined. Corsham Court shares similarities with Corsham Summer, 1952 in its tall upright format and its colouring, it also appears related to other paintings from this year Harvest Festival and Green Mile, which in turn relate to another 'place' painting St Just.