Slate Village, Caernarvonshire

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

Subjects

slate mining, topography, semi-figurative, landscape C20th, townscape/cityscape, house

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), gouache (as artists material), ink, mixed media (art object), gouache (as object name), Ink drawing

Artist

John Piper (1903 - 1992)

Title

Slate Village, Caernarvonshire

Date

1958

Medium

Ink and gouache on paper

Dimensions

height: 57.00 cm, width: 78.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Leicester Galleries, October 1961

Inscription

bl: John Piper

Provenance

Collection of Mrs Blanco White; from whom purchased by the Leicester Galleries, London; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in November 1961

GAC number

5637