John Minton 1917-1957
Corsican Still Life
oil on canvas
23 x 17 ins




John Minton was born near Cambridge in a round house on Christmas Day. His father, a solicitor, belonged to the family that gave its’ name to the porcelain firm. He trained at St. John’s Wood Art School and at the onset of war registered as a conscientious objector.

More intensely than any other English painter since Sickert, Minton apprehended certain aspects of the urban romantic. Yet his response to nature was no less immediate and he found great joy in pure landscape.

Minton’s capacity for work was prodigious. Between 1945 and 1956 he had no fewer than seven solo exhibitions at the Lefevre gallery. In 1947 he visited Corsica where this still-life was painted and he illustrated his first book, The Wanderer by Alain Fournier. His post-war paintings and drawings are amongst the most lyrical of his works.