Malmesbury

Location

Country: Hungary
City: Budapest
Place: British Embassy

John Piper was born in Epsom, Surrey and worked in his father’s solicitors’ firm until 1926. He later studied art in Richmond and London. Meeting Braque in Paris inspired him to make abstract art and to exhibit with the Seven and Five Society (1934–35). In 1935 Piper collaborated with Myfanwy Evans (later, his wife) on the pioneering review, ‘Axis’. He abandoned abstract art for Neo-Romanticism and during the Second World War, as an Official War Artist, he recorded bomb-devastated buildings of England’s disappearing architectural heritage. A versatile artist, Piper made book illustrations, theatre designs, ceramics, stained-glass and textiles. He collaborated with Patrick Reyntiens on stained glass projects which included the baptistry window for what was then the new Coventry Cathedral, and the stained glass lantern for Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Retrospectives of Piper's work were held at the Museum of Modern Art (Oxford, 1973) and the Tate (1983–84).

Places

England, Malmesbury Abbey, Malmesbury, Wiltshire

Subjects

topography, townscape/cityscape, house, abbey, church, tower

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), watercolour (as artists materials), gouache (as artists material), ink, gouache (as object name), watercolour (as object name)

Artist

John Piper (1903 - 1992)

Title

Malmesbury

Date

c1957

Medium

Gouache, watercolour and ink on paper

Dimensions

height: 55.50 cm, width: 75.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Zwemmer Gallery, September 1957

Inscription

bl: Malmesbury ; br: John Piper

GAC number

3892