Sir Matthew Smith

Catalogue entry

N05266 PEACHES 1937

Inscr. ‘MS’ b.l.
Canvas, 23 3/4×28 3/4 (60×73).
Purchased from Arthur Tooth & Sons (Knapping Fund) 1941.
Exh: Tate Gallery, September–October 1953 (60, repr. in colour pl.16), and Arts Council tour, November 1953–February 1954 (36).
Lit: Michael Rothenstein, Looking at Paintings, 1947, p.40, repr.p.41 (in colour); Rothenstein, 1952, p.243.
Repr: Eidos, 2, September–October 1950, p.21, pl.2; Rothenstein, 1962, pl.14 (in colour).

In a letter to Michael Rothenstein (loc. cit.) the artist wrote that N05266 ‘was painted premier coup on white canvas, probably in about two hours. No previous studies at a time when things were going well. I was used to the studio I was in.... It was painted in accordance with certain rather indefinable rules that at the time I was truthfully obeying but I do not think it has anything in common with “Bravura” although ... it was painted quickly.’

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, II

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