Piper, John: Snape Opera House, Aldeburgh
£10,500.00
This is a unique watercolour with collage capturing the landscape and setting of Snape Maltings, now the home of Snape Maltings Concert Hall. The painting formed the basis for the 1979 limited edition screenprint ‘Snape Maltings Concert Hall’ (Levinson, 316). It has been sourced from a member of the Piper family and is offered here for the first time.
In wonderful condition with very strong colours, the painting is signed and newly framed and has been float mounted to capture its full impact.
I am grateful to Hugh-Fowler Wright for the following interpretation of the painting, Hugh is the author, with David Fraser Jenkins, of ‘The Art of John Piper’, 2016, and with Alan Powers, of ‘Piper in Print: John Piper’s Books, Periodicals, Ephemera and Textiles’, 2010.
‘Aldeburgh was an extremely familiar and influential location on John Piper’s art and life. Intrinsically because he was attracted to the East Anglian landscape, coast and in particular it’s churches from years exploring and writing about such. However, his long creative friendship with Benjamin Britten began in 1932. They worked together in the Group Theatre before the Second World War and then founded the English Opera Group in 1947 as well as Piper creating eight stage designs for the composer. The English Opera Group had been establish specifically to tour but for various reasons it evolved into having a base at Britten’s home in Aldeburgh and out of that grew the Aldeburgh (Music) Festival from 1948.
Over the ensuing decades John Piper made many artistic contributions to help the running and finances of the annual Festival from putting on art exhibitions, writing in the festival programme, giving event talks as well as designing programme covers, stage sets, scarfs and related prints of Aldeburgh to sell. In 1979 for the 32nd Festival (1st to 7th October sponsored by Benson & Hedges) he designed a poster known as ‘Snape Maltings Concert Hall’ (Orde Levinson 316) that was also editioned at 150 copies of which 50 were signed. This poster was a simplified version of a couple of similar collages Piper had already made of Snape Maltings. This was typical of his working practice ie when asked for a commission he would look to and draw from what he was creating in his fine art at that time. He titled this original collage ‘Snape Opera House’.
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More images can be provided on request.
Artist: John Piper (British, 1903-1992)
Title and date: Snape Opera House, Aldeburgh, 1979
Size: 58.0 x 40.0 cms.
Description
Artist description:
Born in Epsom, John Egerton Christmas Piper studied at Richmond School of Art and the Royal College of Art from 1926-8. In the mid 1930a, after a visit to Paris, he turned to abstraction. He became a member of the London Group in 1933 and the ‘Seven and Five’ group in 1934-5. During this period he became friends with Oliver Simon of the Curwen Press and his interest in lithography and print making grew. During the Second World War, Piper was appointed as an official war artist recording the effects of the blitz on Britain’s buildings. After the war, he became a Trustee of the Tate and National Galleries and in 1959 he became a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission. Piper is best known for his extensive studies of British architecture and landscape in oil, watercolour and print, and for his photography, stained glass, ceramics, fabric design, murals, stage sets and costume design. His work is held in many Museums and Galleries.