Ruskin Spear

Mr Hollingbery’s Canary

1950

Not on display

Artist: Ruskin Spear 1911–1990
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 1829 x 1071 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1951
Reference: N06011

Catalogue entry

N06011 MR HOLLINGBERY'S CANARY 1950

Not inscribed.

Canvas, 72×42 (183×107).
Chantrey Purchase from the artist 1951.
Exh: Leicester Galleries, March 1951 (13); R.A., 1951 (465).
Repr: Royal Academy Illustrated, 1951, p.6.

Painted in the winter of 1950, this is an interior view of ‘The Hampshire Hog’, a public house kept by Mr Leslie and Mrs Florence Hollingbery in King Street, Hammersmith. As the title suggests, the canary belongs to the publican, and a companion picture ‘Brown Ale’ (repr. Studio, CXLIII, 1952, p.147) shows the same room but seen from the other end of the bar, looking towards the stand bearing the canary cage. It also is an upright composition and belongs to Mr Alastair R. Paterson of Toronto. A third study of the subject exists, but its present location is unknown.

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