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Lot Essay
After the bombing of his family home in London, early in 1941, John Craxton spent a lot of time in Dorset, staying near Fordingbridge with the painter and designer E.Q. Nicholson and her family.
E.Q, the wife of Ben Nicholson's modernist architect brother Kit, had transformed Alderholt Mill into a haven of optimism and light. 'It was in her hospitable house that I really started to find myself,' Craxton said, 'The great elemental landscapes were too monumental for me at that time, and I preferred the more intimate places: metamorphic fallen trees, mill-houses and cart tracks were closer to my temperament' (private correspondence between Ian Collins and E.Q. Nicholson's family).
Ian Collins is writing John Craxton's memorial monograph and we are grateful for his help in cataloguing this lot and lots 104-105. Anyone with information or images for the book can contact the author c/o Christie's, South Kensington, 85 Old Brompton Road, SW7 3LD.
E.Q, the wife of Ben Nicholson's modernist architect brother Kit, had transformed Alderholt Mill into a haven of optimism and light. 'It was in her hospitable house that I really started to find myself,' Craxton said, 'The great elemental landscapes were too monumental for me at that time, and I preferred the more intimate places: metamorphic fallen trees, mill-houses and cart tracks were closer to my temperament' (private correspondence between Ian Collins and E.Q. Nicholson's family).
Ian Collins is writing John Craxton's memorial monograph and we are grateful for his help in cataloguing this lot and lots 104-105. Anyone with information or images for the book can contact the author c/o Christie's, South Kensington, 85 Old Brompton Road, SW7 3LD.