Oil on canvas
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Collection
© Estate of Ceri Richards. All rights reserved, DACS 2018
A Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, 1932
Ceri Richards (1903-1971) was born in the village of Dunvant into a highly cultured, working-class environment. In 1924, after previously studying at the Swansea College of Art, he entered the Royal College of Art and his work came under the influence of the modernist movement, particularly Picasso and Kandinsky.
In 1929 he married Frances Clayton (1903-1985), a fellow artist, and in 1932 he produced this portrait of her wearing a large straw hat and red poncho. The portrait, heavily influenced by the work of Picasso, projects an individual of artistic taste who is very much her own woman.
Dr Barry Plummer, Art Historian, Swansea.
To see more works by Ceri Richards in the Glynn Vivian permanent collection, see The Pianist, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, La Cathédrale engloutie III and Music of Colours – White Blossom.
