Sir George Clausen, RA, RWS, (British, 1852-1944)

Cottages on a frosty evening

Cottages on a frosty evening
signed 'G CLAUSEN' (lower right); signed and inscribed 'COTTAGES./ON A FROSTY EVENING./G. CLAUSEN.' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
41 x 51.5cm (16 1/8 x 20 1/4in).

Provenance
The artist.
Thence by descent to Christopher Derrick Esq., the artist's grandson.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 11 March 1992, lot 12.
Whitford Fine Art, London.
Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 8 June 2001, lot 14.
Private collection, UK.

In the 1920s, on his retreats to Hillside, his country property at Duton Hill in Essex, Clausen increasingly concentrated on effects of sunrise and sunset, viewed from the roadside. Often distilled from drawings, these frequently described labourers' cottages ? thickly thatched single storey buildings, the rounded contours of which undulated into the landscape. On the present frosty evening, a field-worker and child, heading for home, pass by in the twilight as they had forty years earlier when he painted The End of a Winter's Day 1884-5 (unlocated) for the Grosvenor Gallery. After wars, conflagration and social strife, the simple rhythms of rural life were maintained. The drab khaki in the handling of the male figure is remarkably similar to that of figures in The Road to Tilty (circa 1920, Leeds Art Galleries and Museums), and The Shepherd Boy (1920, private collection).

The present lot does not appear to have been included in the artist's studio sale, suggesting that the work had, before Clausen's death, been given to his daughter, Meg, and her husband, the designer and illustrator, Thomas Derrick.

We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.