Ivon Hitchens - Algerian Woman No. 1 [c.1949]

Ivon Hitchens - Algerian Woman No. 1 [c.1949], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

In November 1950, Ivon Hitchens (London, 1893 - Petworth, 1979) exhibited twenty-seven paintings, all nudes, at the Leicester Galleries in London. Wyndham Lewis, who reviewed the exhibition for the Listener wrote: ‘When an artist has evolved a manner so intensely personal that a picture of his can be recognized a half-a-mile away, and has for a number of years remained pretty stationary, it is most unusual for him to break the spell and open up on us with a new line. Yet this is what has happened at the Leicester Galleries where Ivon Hitchins has broken out of his brown web and revealed to our astonished gaze a large recumbent nude female. What is one to say, except congratulate him on this comely girl, and wait to see what is going to happen next?’ 

[Oil on canvas, 53.3 x 94 cm]