John Cecil Stephenson: Abstract in blue, brown and mauve - on Art WW I

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John Cecil Stephenson:
Abstract in blue, brown and mauve

Framed (ref: 6569)
Signed with studio stamp to reverse
Oil on paper
5 1/2 x 3 3/4 in. (14 x 9.5 cm)


Tags: John Cecil Stephenson oil Canney Abstract Art



Provenance: With the artist's family until 2002.


Literature: John Cecil Stephenson, Pioneer of Modernism, Conor Mullan, 2012, p. 54.



Stephenson made his first abstract paintings around 1932. In 1934 he exhibited with the 7 & 5 Society, along with Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and John Piper.  Though not today as well known as many of his contemporaries he was one of the key figures in the development of abstract art in Britain.  Indeed Herbert Reed noted that Stephenson 'was one of the earliest artists in this country to develop a completely abstract style' and credited him with being  the father figure of the 'gentle nest of artists' (Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore) who occupied the Mall Studio's in Hampstead.  At the beginning of WW2 Calder and Mondrian counted amongst his friends and were frequent visitors to The Mall Studios.




Piet Mondrian photographed in a Hampstead garden by John Cecil Stephenson 1939


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