Charles Mahoney:
Digs at Ambleside, c.1940
Framed (ref: 2487)
Watercolour over pencil with highlights in pen and ink
18 1/2 x 11 3/4 in. (47 x 30 cm)
Tags: Charles Mahoney ink pen and ink pencil watercolour interiors war World War II Paintings by British Artists
Provenance: the Artist's Estate
Exhibited: WW2 - War Pictures by British Artists, Morley College London, 28 October -23 November 2016, cat 145.
Literature: WW2 - War Pictures by British Artists, Edited by Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss, July 2016, cat 145, page 186.
In a flat section pitch pine frame with brown inner and outer mouldings.
In late 1940 the Royal College of Art was evacuated to Ambleside in the
Lake District; Mahoney and Percy Horton were among the male staff. The
students were housed in two hotels, men at The Queens and women at The
Salutation; Mahoney was resident master in charge at the men’s hostel.
Whilst at Ambleside, Mahoney became engaged to Dorothy Bishop, a
calligraphy tutor from the Design School of the Royal College of Art.
They were married in September 1941. For a fuller account of this
period see biographical essay, pp and The Artist as Evacuee, The Royal
College of Art in the Lake District, 1940-45, Dove Cottage and the
Wordsworth Museum, Grasmere 1987.
In spite of requisitioning two hotels, conditions for the Royal College
of Art students were cramped. The majority of space was required for
accommodation leaving precious little room for the studios which were
mostly set up in lower rooms and suffered from lack of light.
