Tree Trunks and Leaves
John Randall Bratby (Wimbledon 1928 - Hastings 1992)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1954 - 1956
Materials
Oil on board
Measurements
1187 x 876 mm
Order this imageCollection
Mottisfont, Hampshire
NT 769721
Caption
Bratby was known as a ‘kitchen sink realist’, who painted expressionist scenes of everyday domestic life. He applied paint thickly, usually in vibrant colours. This scene was painted earlier in his career when the prevailing feeling in England was ‘the colour and mood of ration-books – the general feeling of sackcloth and ashes.’ He was linked with Jack Smith, Edward Middleditch and Derrick Greaves, who were also exponents of the Kitchen sink school. Bratby was also a novelist, whose works were often semi-autobiographical.
Summary
Oil painting on board, Tree Trunks and Leaves by John Randall Bratby (Wimbledon 1928 - 1992), 1954-56. Bratby painted kitchens, bathrooms and domestic scenes. This is perhaps the outdoor equivalent: an unprepossessing patch of green matter in which the artist finds surprisingly complex, rich patterns, colours and vibrant new life. He had several places where he painted, including a revolving studio in the garden of his home at Blackheath that gave him changing views of his own and neighbouring domestic surroundings. It was a way of seeing the world around him from a new perspective; these everyday views became the subject of much of Bratby’s work.
Provenance
Presented by Derek Hill (1916 - 2000) through The National Art Collections Fund (Art Fund) 1996
Credit line
Mottisfont Abbey,The Derek Hill Collection (presented to the National Trust through the National Art-Collections Fund in 1996)
Makers and roles
John Randall Bratby (Wimbledon 1928 - Hastings 1992), artist