

Sketch for April
Framed (ref: 9016)
Pencil, pen and ink. 6½ x 4¾ in. (16.5 x 12 cm)
Tags: Evelyn Dunbar ink pen and ink pencil Evelyn Dunbar at The Watts Gallery
Tags: Evelyn Dunbar ink pen and ink pencil Evelyn Dunbar at The Watts Gallery
Provenance: Roger Folley; Alasdair Dunbar; Hammer Mill Oast Collection
An early sketch for Dunbar’s personifications of the months, which in their various forms occupied her for much of 1937-1938 and which appeared fully-fledged in her Country Life 1938 Gardener’s Diary and in An English Calendar. Here April, carrying what in more developed versions became a pot-grown apple tree espaliered to form the word APRIL, is coming through the doorway of the gardener’s year, which - symbolically - she has pushed open herself.
We are grateful to Christopher Campbell-Howes for assistance.