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Camille Souter HRHA (b.1929) LONDON AGAIN signed and dated lower right; titled and signed again o...

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Camille Souter HRHA (b.1929) LONDON AGAIN signed and dated lower right; titled and signed again o...
Camille Souter HRHA (b.1929)
LONDON AGAIN
signed and dated lower right; titled and signed again on reverse
oil on paper
46 by 61cm., 18 by 24in.
Provenance:
Dawson Gallery, Dublin
Camille Souter first came to London in 1948 to train as a nurse. While studying
there she took the opportunity to visit as many exhibitions and concerts as
possible. It was, she recalls "the most wonderful education I ever had". When
she arrived she still went by the name of Betty Pamela Holmes. By 1951 she had
married the Old Vic actor Gordon Souter. Her first husband is said to have
nicknamed her "Camille" as an allusion to the tubercular heroine of Alexander
Dumas’ La Dame aux Camelias. After completing her nursing studies, she almost
immediately began to paint full-time. In London, Betty Pamela Holmes, the nurse,
became Camille Souter, the bohemian artist.
During the mid-fifties she left the city, dividing her time between Italy and
Ireland. On her way to Italy in 1958, she found herself in "London Again" for a
brief three days. This work is almost certainly based on that experience. From a
technical perspective the painting is typical of her style at the time. The
artist has achieved a range of subtle textures by pressing a sheet of paper or
rags against the surface. It is almost an "all-over" painting, in the sense that
no one area of the work seems immediately more important than another. As a
result the exact representational content remains illusive. The yellow-orange
colour at the centre of the work may describe street-lights. The atmosphere is
almost reminiscent of T.S. Elliot’s Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and "The
yellow fog that rubs its back against the window-panes / The yellow smoke that
rubs its muzzle on the window panes". The analogy with a window may not be
inappropriate either. A year earlier the artist had produced some views from
windows in Dublin. Nevertheless, it is impossible to offer a definitive
interpretation.
Quote from an interview with the artist, March 1998.
Garrett Cormican
€7,000-€9,000 (£4,900-£6,300 sterling approx.)