Ivon Hitchens (British 1893-1979) Autumn Tree

Ivon Hitchens (British, 1893-1979) Autumn Tree, 1962 Signed "Hitchens" l. l., identified on labels, including one from the Waddington Galleries, London, on the stretcher. Oil on canvas, 18 x 41 1/4 in. (45.7 x 104.6 cm), framed. Condition: Craquelure. Provenance: Through the estate of Robert W. Booth, Worcester, Massachusetts. Exhibitions: Ivon Hitchens , The Waddington Galleries, London, April 7-May 2, 1964, number 5. N.B. Ivon Hitchens was born in 1893 the son of a landscape artist. He studied art in London and exhibited with the Seven and Five Society in the twenties. During the 1930s he became part of the London Group with other influential artists such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. It was in this period that his art became influenced by Braque, and his work becomes increasingly abstract. When his home in London was bombed in 1940, Hitchens moved to Sussex, where he would live and paint for the rest of his life.