Old Lighthouse, Portland

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

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

England, Dorset, Portland Bill

Subjects

topography, townscape/cityscape, telegraph pole, house, lighthouse

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), watercolour (as artists materials), watercolour (as object name)

Artist

John Piper (1903 - 1992)

Title

Old Lighthouse, Portland

Date

September 1953

Medium

Watercolour on paper

Dimensions

height: 35.50 cm, width: 53.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Leicester Galleries, March 1962

Inscription

br: John Piper ; bl: Portland / Sep. / 1953

Provenance

Consigned by the artist to Leicester Galleries, London; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in March 1962

GAC number

5756