Lot 514: William Whitehead Ratcliffe (British, 1870-1955)

William Whitehead Ratcliffe (British, 1870-1955)
The living room, looking out to the garden, the Townsend house, Stotfold Bury, Stotfold, Nr. Letchworth, signed, oils on canvas, 17 1/2" x 23 1/4".
Provenance:
Given directly by the artist to Charles Townsend and thence by descent.
Charles Townsend was a chemical engineer and editor, married to Eleni Zompolides who was an artist/designer at a book binding works associated with Douglas Cockerell. The family were central figures in the emerging Arts & Crafts movement in Letchworth and knew most of the leading figures, including the Parker family and Harold Gilman. Zompolides was the model for Harold Gilman's The Blue Blouse (Leeds Museum & Art Gallery).
The family were good friends of the Camden Town artist William Ratcliffe and he use to walk over the hills from Letchworth to visit the family in Stotfold.
This work shows the influence of the Camden Town group with its distinctive palette. The leading contemporary critic Frank Rutter wrote:
'tainted with the disease of purplitis. Messrs. Spencer Gore, Robert Bevan, William Ratcliffe, and many others of this group of artist, who attach themselves with real passion to the pictorial interpretation of their own daily surroundings and of modern life, all look up on the world with purple spectacles.' (see Rosamond Allword, William Ratcliffe, North Hertforshire District Council, 2011, p.24 and 'Art & Artists', The Observer, 14 July 1912, p.9.)