Ceri Richards (1903-1971)

The Pianist, 1948

This work, from 1948, is one of a series painted through the ’40s & ’50s by Swansea born artist Ceri Richards (1903-1971) blending music and interiors and often depicting his daughters.

An accomplished pianist himself, much of his artwork was inspired by music and, in this painting, the avant-garde influence of Picasso and Matisse is also apparent.

John Upton, former Education Officer at the Gallery and himself an artist, explains “The paint is applied spontaneously with no overworking or second layers. A lot of the lines are created by ‘sgraffito’, scratching through the paint layer to reveal the light ground underneath.”

Ceri Richards’ biographer, Mel Gooding describes the series as “These paintings with their reverberant colourism, their decorative arabesque vigour, their fullness of good things, sweet sounds and floral perfumes, reflect that contained domesticity. They are deeply tender in feeling, but detached in mood.”

(‘Ceri Richards’, 2002, p.97)

To see more works by Ceri Richards in the Glynn Vivian permanent collection, see A Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, La Cathédrale engloutie III and Music of Colours – White Blossom.