Owen (Oska) Wood

Details

John Minton (1917-1957)
Owen (Oska) Wood
signed and dated 'John Minton 1947' (upper left)
oil on canvas
30 x 20 in. (76.2 x 50.8 cm.)

Provenance

Mrs Catherine Dupré.
with Agnews, London.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, 13 June 1980, lot 323 as 'Young Boy in Glasses seated in front of a Window'.

Exhibited

London, Agnews, Irish Exhibition of Living Artists, 1950, catalogue not traced.
London, Morley Gallery, John Minton 1917-1957, Exhibition of paintings and drawings, February - March 1979, no. 3, as 'A Student'.
Chichester, Festival Exhibition, The Tudor Room of the Bishop's Palace, All for Love, Aspects of Love in the art of more than 200 years, July 1994, no. 28.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

Please note the last paragraph of the catalogue note is included by error for this lot.

Lot Essay

Owen Wood was a pupil of Minton's at Camberwell School of Art and became part of a group of young men known as 'Johnny's Circus'. He was nicknamed 'Oska', after another student, Bobby Hunt, introduced him by this name to a girlfriend he wanted to impress. The spelling of this nickname was Hunt's invention.

The present work is almost certainly painted not from life but from a photograph as it echoes the well-known image of Minton by John Deakin.

We are very grateful to Frances Spalding for providing the above catalogue note.

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