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CURRENT GALLERY EXHIBITION Twentieth Century British Art 25 June - 19 July 2008
Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair
12 - 18 June
Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London
Stand 50
and
Twentieth Century British Art
25 - 19 June
Osborne Samuel, 23a Bruton Street, London, W1J 6QG
It is ten years since we began the annual series of Modern British exhibitions at the gallery, and during that time we have been fortunate enough to handle a remarkable collection of paintings and sculpture. We have also mounted a series of major retrospective exhibitions, including Wadsworth, Vaughan and Kinley, not to mention our re-creation of the pivotal 1955 show of British abstraction and most recently a survey of British constructive art.
This year we have assembled an outstanding collection, by far the best group we have ever had at the gallery. Many of the works have not been seen publicly for decades, including the monumental Beach Scene with Bathers, Pier and Ships by Christopher Wood painted in 1925 on six folding panels, originally owned by Lord Lathom and subsequently sold to Lady Cunard; another rare small gem is the delightful and tender Lovers, painted by Michael Andrews in 1956, last seen during the Andrews touring retrospective exhibition of 1980. The two Craxton paintings of the Lemon Harvester, 1951and Cockerel & Cat, 1957 have remained with the same family since 1957.
The Frost and the Heath are both exceptional paintings from the artists’ key periods; the Frost painted during his time as a Gregory Fellow at Leeds and the Heath a fine example of his Constructivist phase of the early-mid 1950s, both museum quality works. Hilton’s paintings have become rarer; here we include two, one fine example from the Paris inspired paintings of 1951 and the other a compelling work from 1955. The Hitchens is an exceptional painting from
1960 and was exhibited widely in museums including the Tate Gallery retrospective of 1963. Reynolds’ Legend in August, 1953 is again an outstanding work and closely related to the Tate’s Summer: Young September's Cornfield painted the same year. Interestingly, Legend in August predates the Tate painting by ‘slightly less than a year’ according to Reynolds.
Once again we have managed to find an exceptional small Lowry and a powerful Wynter. We have always had a particular interest in sculpture and for this exhibition we have fine works by Armitage, Chadwick, Frink and Moore.
Interest in Peter Kinley continues to be strong and we have included an early impasto painting of 1962, unseen for decades and another of 1966 showing Kinley’s transition to thinner, flatter, more simplified figure painting of the later 1960s and beyond.
Following our successful Keith Vaughan retrospective we include two gouaches not in that exhibition. Figures and Boats, c.1953 was bought directly from Vaughan in 1963 by the late Kenneth Hood, Deputy Director of the National Gallery of Victoria. There are also two fine Prunella Cloughs, one from 1949, who last year was honoured with a Tate Gallery retrospective.
We hope you get the chance to see this fine collection either at Grosvenor House or at the gallery in Bruton Street and look forward to welcoming you.
Our grateful thanks to everyone who has contributed to this exhibition, in particular to Mark Glazebrook and Tom Flynn for their short essays on each of the works in the catalogue.
Peter Osborne Gordon Samuel
If you would like to request a copy of the catalogue which accompanies this exhibition and which contains full colour photographs of all works in the exhibition, please contact Lucy Tyler at the gallery: ltyler@osbornesamuel.com

VIEW EXHIBITION
 |  |  |  | GALLERY PROGRAMME 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
| JANUARY 2006 | | | Fairs Art Miami 6 January - 9 January 2006 VIEW | |
Exhibitions Philip Braham: Distant Landscapes 25 January - 18 February 2006 VIEW | |
FEBRUARY 2006 | | | Auctions Preview of Saffronart Spring Online Auction 16 February - 28 February 2006 VIEW | | | Saffronart Spring Online Auction
1st & 2nd March
www.saffronart.com 21 February - 2 March 2006 VIEW | |
Exhibitions Sculpture, Painting and Prints: Mixed Show 27 February - 25 March 2006 VIEW | |
MARCH 2006 | | | Fairs Fine Art & Antiques Fair, Olympia, London 1 March - 5 March 2006 VIEW | | | London Original Print Fair, 2006 22 March - 22 April 2006 VIEW | | | London Original Print Fair, 2006 22 March - 26 March 2006 VIEW | |
APRIL 2006 | | | Exhibitions Rob Maclaurin: New Paintings 26 April - 13 May 2006 VIEW | |
MAY 2006 | | | Auctions Saffronart Summer Online Auction 9 May - 11 May 2006 VIEW | |
Exhibitions Peter Kinley 17 May - 10 June 2006 VIEW | |
JUNE 2006 | | | Fairs Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair 2006 15 June - 21 June 2006 VIEW | |
Exhibitions Jagannath Panda 28 June - 15 July 2006 VIEW | |
JULY 2006 | | | Exhibitions Heads Figures and Ideas 24 July - 31 August 2006 VIEW | |
SEPTEMBER 2006 | | | Fairs 20/21 British Art Fair 2006 13 September - 17 September 2006 VIEW | |
Exhibitions Manisha Parekh 14 September - 27 September 2006 VIEW | | | Edward Wadsworth: The Rhythm of Things - Paintings and Drawings 27 September - 27 October 2006 VIEW | |
NOVEMBER 2006 | | | Exhibitions Avinash Chandra - A Retrospective 2 November - 25 November 2006 VIEW | |
Fairs IFPDA Print Fair 2006 2 November - 5 November 2006 VIEW | |
Auctions Saffronart Auction Preview 20 November - 25 November 2006 VIEW | |
Exhibitions Lynn Chadwick 30 November - 22 December 2006 VIEW | |
DECEMBER 2006 | | | Auctions Saffronart Winter Online Auction 5 December - 7 December 2006 VIEW |
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