Lot 86: John Cecil Stephenson (1889-1965)

Sketch No. 8
signed 'J Stephenson' (lower right)
pencil and gouache on grey paper, squared for transfer
11 x 14 in. (28 x 35.5 cm.)
Executed in 1937.

The present work is a study for a tempera work completed in 1938 which belonged to Stephenson's series of Bright Triangle paintings. Simon Guthrie comments, 'Most of the paintings completed by Stephenson up to 1938 convey the impression of quiet harmony and static calm. The solemn uprights, anchored by short horizontals, and the ruler straight edges all combine towards this effect. The 'Bright Triangle series, on the other hand, with its darting elements gives an impression of action and movement which indicates the beginning of the next phase of Cecil's painting. The new designs which lead on from Bright Triangles convey an even greater feeling of rhythm and lightness, and this is done by using motifs with two different properties. These are:- curved edges, and pierced open forms. The curvature produces the effect of movement, in the same way as a parabola does by describing the flight of an object, and the piercing reduces the apparent mass of the form as it does in sculpture' (see The Life and Art of John Cecil Stephenson: A Victorian painter's journey to Abstract Expressionism, Grange-over-Sands, 1997, p. 79).

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