SOLD


William S Taylor:
The Studio, Ambleside, 1943
Framed (ref: 163)
Inscribed by the artist 'Interior 2' on reverse, oil on canvas, 18 x 22 in. (45.8 x 55.9 cm.)

Tags: William S Taylor oil interiors

Provenance: acquired directly from the artist

The Studio dates to the period when the Royal College of Art evacuated from South Kensington in the Autumn of 1940, taking over two hotels in Ambleside, the Queens and the Salutation, for studios and accommodation.

In 1942 Taylor moved to this studio, which was a barn in the garden of an eighteenth-century house, Gale Cottage, in Old Lake Road in Ambleside: 'I stayed there for my post-graduate year, 1942-3, when I made this painting .. Candles and oil lamps were the source of artificial light; a small stove with a pipe through the roof was for heating; a tin wash basin for washing and a stove for cooking completed the facilities .. Having been rejected on medical grounds by the armed forces, these years were for me, in spite of the slaughter going on in the real world, the halcyon days: my time was my own, with few responsibilities and only my painting to concern me'. Letter to Paul Liss, 7 November 2001.