Lot 159: Ursula Vivian McCannell (b. 1923)

Waiting
signed and dated 'Ursula McC 39' (lower left)
oil on board
35 x 30 in. (88.9 x 76.2 cm.)

London, Royal Academy, United Artists Exhibition, January - March 1940, no. 944.
London, England & Co., Three Generations, June - July 1989, no. 27.

The Artist

As 1939 drew to an end, the war was proving to be something of an anti-climax in Britain. Although everyone was still obliged to carry gas masks and registration cards in readiness for conflict on the home front, people started using phrases such as the 'Phoney War' and the 'Bore War'.

Waiting, painted in 1939, when the artist was only sixteen years old, and studying at the Farnham School of Art, is a reaction from an observer who had witnessed at first hand the Spanish Civil War. Three solemn figures pass the time; one deep in thought holding a single white flower, one crossing his arms defiantly staring out at us, and one reading a newspaper, expectant to hear of developments in the war. From 1942-44 McCannell studied at the RCA, and once she graduated, she held regular solo exhibitions at galleries including Gimpel Fils and Roland Browse & Delbanco. She married Peter Rees Roberts (see lots 155 and 279) and her work is represented in Manchester City Art Gallery.

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