'Beaconsfield Fair' by Harry Greville Wood Irwin RBA (1893-1947)

Object Description

Oil on panel paintings by Harry Greville Wood Irwin RBA (1893-1947)

Object History

This rather colourful oil of Beaconsfield Market was painted by a Modern British artist who we can claim to have brought back from complete obscurity. Our show in 2012 reintro duced his historical works of Royal and military pageantry between the wars. His paintings, always full of such life and colour, belied the sadness in the artist’s life. Having been wounded by shrapnel as a young subaltern in the Great War, he suffered a lifelong paralysis and debilitating pain that finally led him to shoot himself in St Ives in 1947.

In common with all the paintings we have owned by Irwin, this is a glorious historical record of England between the wars. A sense of BBC period drama pervades the scene, children beg sweets from a seriously dressed old dame while a young woman in a red summer dress chats amiably over
her pushbike to the parson. Utterly charming.

Object Literature

This painting has been shown at our exhibition ‘A Dealer´s Eye’ in March 2020. View e-catalogue here: https://ebooks.panterandhall.com/other/a-dealers-eye/

Object Condition

Good condition

Object Details