Roy Hobdell (1911-1961)
Still-Life: Iris, Narcissus, Tulips and Convolvulus, with Moths
POA
Gwynne Jones painted flowers throughout his life, and after the Second World War he often turned to them as relaxation from the portraiture that was his bread and butter. He carefully composed wild grasses and flowers with cultivated plants from his own garden, often in humble receptacles, with draped backgrounds, tipping the surfaces forwards and using mirrors, as here. This example is a fine early work.
The artist taught most of the East Kent School at the Royal College of Art. John Ward in particular admired him greatly and they remained close. After Sergeant had his first exhibition at the Maas Gallery, instead of cashing the cheque for his share in the proceedings, he asked us to make an offer on a painting by Gwynne-Jones that Agnew’s were selling - and so the deal was done, and Sergeant was paid for years of hard work only with a picture by one of his heroes.
His obituarist in The Times noted: 'Perhaps his vein of tender lyricism was most apparent in his paintings of flowers and still life... Such works, while entirely personal in vision, echo the refinement of Chardin.'