Fowey Harbour in Wartime

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

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, Fowey, Cornwall

Subjects

topography, WW2 art, seascape/coastal scene, townscape/cityscape, World War II, harbour, house, church, ship

Materials & Techniques

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

Artist

John Piper (1903 - 1992)

Title

Fowey Harbour in Wartime

Date

c.1944

Medium

Watercolour on paper

Dimensions

height: 58.00 cm, width: 72.00 cm

Acquisition

Presented via the Imperial War Museum, War Artists' Advisory Committee, April 1946

Inscription

br: John Piper

Provenance

Gift from Imperial War Museum, War Artists' Advisory Committee, 1946

GAC number

81