Welsh Landscape

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Wales Office, Gwydyr House, Whitehall

John Piper was born in Epsom, Surrey and worked in his father’s solicitors’ firm until 1926. He later studied art in Richmond and London. Meeting Braque in Paris inspired him to make abstract art and to exhibit with the Seven and Five Society (1934–35). In 1935 Piper collaborated with Myfanwy Evans (later, his wife) on the pioneering review, ‘Axis’. He abandoned abstract art for Neo-Romanticism and during the Second World War, as an Official War Artist, he recorded bomb-devastated buildings of England’s disappearing architectural heritage. A versatile artist, Piper made book illustrations, theatre designs, ceramics, stained-glass and textiles. He collaborated with Patrick Reyntiens on stained glass projects which included the baptistry window for what was then the new Coventry Cathedral, and the stained glass lantern for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Retrospectives of Piper's work were held at the Museum of Modern Art (Oxford, 1973) and the Tate (1983–84).

Places

Wales, Gwynedd, Snowdonia

Subjects

topography, landscape C20th, hill, stone/rock

Materials & Techniques

board, gouache (as artists material), ink, chalk, mixed media (art object)

Artist

John Piper (1903 - 1992)

Title

Welsh Landscape

Date

1940s

Medium

Chalk, gouache and ink on board

Dimensions

height: 53.10 cm, width: 68.70 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the New Art Centre, January 1981

Inscription

br: John Piper

GAC number

15134