Beschreibung:

Tristram Hillier R.A. (British, 1905-1983) Ruined Pier, Dieppe signed, inscribed and dated 'Hillier/Dieppe/1950' (lower left) oil on board 16.5 x 25.6 cm. (6 1/2 x 10 in.) Fußnoten Provenance With Arthur Tooth & Sons, London Private Collection, U.K. Along with Edward Burra Tristram Hillier at the age of twenty-eight was the youngest member of the forward thinking Unit One group, formed in 1933 with Paul Nash at the helm and intent on promoting the very latest in contemporary art, architecture and design. With the influence of the Bloomsbury group fading, abstraction and surrealism were breathing new life into the British art scene and Unit One comprised some of the most promising talent of the era including Henry Moore Barbara Hepworth and Ben Nicholson In Nash's own words, the group embraced the concept of artistic unity – Unit – with that of individuality – One. Unit One also nurtured the fruitful relationship between Tristram Hillier and Edward Wadsworth who both shared an apprenticeship at The Slade under Henry Tonks the latter acting as something of a mentor to his younger counterpart. Sixteen years Hillier's senior, Wadsworth was one of the most well respected artists of the day and a pioneer of Vorticism whose endorsement of Unit One gave significant weight to the group. Wadsworth, who regularly used and encouraged Hillier to work in the medium of tempera, had been creating images of heavily lit objects, carefully assembled outside of their immediate environment, which combined to produce an effective surrealist formula. Hillier had moved to France by the later 1930s and Wadsworth frequently stayed with the family, embarking on several joint drawing expeditions around the Normandy coast and impressing themselves on one another. Hillier acknowledged the impact of Wadsworth at this time, stating that 'It was not, I think, until about 1935 that I began to discover what I personally wanted, and in that period I painted many seascapes, harbour scenes and the like, rather under the influence of Wadsworth' (Jenny Pery, Painter Pilgrim, The Art and Life of Tristram Hillier, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2008, p.66). It was Wadsworth who introduced Hillier to his dealers Arthur Tooth & Sons, where the latter would go on to sell his paintings throughout the war and from whom Ruined Pier, Dieppe was originally purchased. On 23 November 2016 Bonhams set a new international auction record for a work by Tristram Hillier with The Lighthouse selling for £106,250.