Snow in Blackheath, (Christmas, 1938)
Framed (ref: 10540)
Oil on canvas
Signed
Oil on canvas
Signed
Provenance: Prudence and Rosalind Bliss
Literature: Gargoyles & Tattie-Bogles: the lives and work of Douglas Percy Bliss and Phyllis Dodd, Fleece Press, 2018.
In 1932 the Bliss family moved from Lambeth to Blackheath and Douglas took a job at Blackheath Art School. Phyllis gave birth to her first daughter, Prudence.
As an artist Douglas exchanged the low-toned backstreet scenes of Lambeth for views over his extensive back garden in Blackheath, and these were now usually painted in oils......The Blisses began to settle into the Blackheath community. Douglas had always shown a flair for organising and getting things done at college, and now in 1937 he became a Founder and firstSecretary of the Blackheath Society with Lord Vaizey as President and poet John Betjeman in support. This protected the Georgian and Regency architecture of the district and organised opposition to those speculative builders who wished to tamper with it, or to hack down the trees; the Society is still in existence.
We are grateful to Malcome Yorke and Simon Lawrence, for the above information, which is quoted in the Fleece Press Publication, Gargoyles & Tattie-Bogles, 2017, pp 125-142
Exhibited: Sanctuary, Artist-Gardeners, 1919-39, Garden Museum, London, 25th February – 5 April, 2020
Literature: Christopher Woodward, Sanctuary: Artist-Gardeners, 1919–1939, published by Liss Llewellyn, 2020
