£2,500 

Kenneth Rowntree:
The Original design for Homage to Verlaine (Chanson d'Autome), 1984
Framed (ref: 4128)

Tags: Kenneth Rowntree gouache music Kenneth Rowntree: A Centenary Exhibition Kenneth Rowntree - A Kind of Simplicity

Provenance: The Artist's Family

Literature: Kenneth Rowntree, A Centenary Exhibition, Moore-Gwyn Fine Art and Liss Llewellyn Fine Art, 2015, Cat. 39, p.80

Exhibited: Fry Art Gallery, Kenneth Rowntree, A Centenary Exhibition, 2015, no 31

This painting - and the series of screenprints that were later reproduced from it - was commissioned by the Mid Northumberland Arts Group, via George Stephenson', its Director. The subject was inspired directly by the Paul Verlaine poem, Chanson d’Autome, chosen by Rowntree himself. 

In a letter to the Tate Gallery, dated 4 May 1988, the artist writes of this work: 'there was no finished work, as such. It ended up with overlays very often two or three thick, to try out colours'. The image is directly inspired by the images in the poem, 'the violin on the left is repeated as a tree form on the right, all bathed in autumnal light'.