GENIUS LOCI, 1946
Oil on board. 28½ x 25½in. (73.8 - 65.8cm.)
Signed and dated ’46; titled on the reverse.
Provenance
Sotheby’s studio sale, London, 24th April 1985, lot 529. Illustrated in the catalogue.
Christies, South Kensington, 6th December 1991, lot No 203. Illustrated in the catalogue, p.91.
Bonhams, London, 1st October 1997, dimensions given as 28½ x 27½in., lot 230.
Exhibited
London, Mayor Gallery, 1947 (paintings) No.16.
Bradford, Art Gallery, 1950 No. 277.
Exeter, City of Exeter Art Gallery, 1972, No. 10. (Recorded as unsigned and dated 1948).
London, Leva Gallery, 1974, No. 20.
In Roman mythology, a genius was an attendant spirit. Throughout life, every person was guarded by two genii. A genius loci is the tutelary deity of a place.
A grove of trees, painted using the decalcomania technique, dominates the foreground of the painting. It is set within a brushed in landscape with a village on a hill beyond.
The counterpart of this work is known.