- Artist
- Ivon Hitchens 1893–1979
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 902 × 1219 mm
Frame: 1053 × 1382 × 72 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1965
- Reference
- T00728
Catalogue entry
Ivon Hitchens 1893-1979
T00728 Coronation 1937
Inscr. ‘Hitchens’ b.l.
Oil on canvas, 35½ x 48 (90 x 122).
Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1964.
Exh: Arts Council, Tate Gallery, July–August 1963 (19, repr. in colour); R.A., 1965 (22).
Repr: R.A. Illustrated, 1965, p. 23.
The artist wrote from Lavington Common (24 March 1965) that ‘Coronation’ was painted in the summer of 1937 after the Coronation of George VI, and that his wife thought it had been exhibited at the Zwemmer Gallery either in 1937 or 1938, but no record of this has been traced: ‘There were a number of experimental or near abstract works “tried out” at that time, some of which never saw the light of day, and about then we began to throw roots here. This side tracked me into observing nature more closely... In the confusion of the bombing... it was lucky that particular canvas reached here and survived the muddle and lack of space here—when many canvases were just buried in the sand to dispose of them and make space.’ In a further letter (5 April 1965) he added: ‘The title was suitable because of its colours and occasioned perhaps by the events “in the air” at the time—and the two “forms” in the blue panel. It would be unwise to seek for any more direct symbolism.’
Published in The Tate Gallery Report 1964–1965, London 1966.
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