'Hitchens’ senusousness, his control of colour-resonance and his almost calligraphic, unfailingly rhythmic manipulation of pigment all stem direct from the Fauves. His spatial grammar, on the other hand - the fact that he conceives of forms in space in terms of a system of flat screens of colour lying one beind another - this is purely Cubist in origin.'
Ivon Hitchens was one of the most original and distinctive British painters of the twentieth century, balancing abstraction and figuration in a manner that transforms his subjects into paintings that dance with colour, movement and emotion.
His early career in the 1920s and 30s was spent in London, and he moved within the circles of Ben and Winifred Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, exhibiting at the Seven and Five Society of painters and sculptors. He subsequently inspired Britain’s new generation of post-War painters such as Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon and Roger Hilton.
Surveying his career, it is easy to see why his work was an inspiration to such artists and why he holds a central place in the development of 20th century British art. Inspired by the great modern masters from Cézanne and Gauguin to Matisse, the freedom of Hitchen’s paintings - their painterliness - and his exceptional sense of space, form and colour boldly reimagined how both the landscape and still-life subject could be portrayed.
Hitchens depicted still-lifes in a manner not dissimilar to his landscapes. He did not let any perceived conformoties of the still-life subject restrict his work, opening it up to allow as much expression as possible. To this end, the elongated format of the canvas as seen in the present work (and his canvas-size of choice for his landscapes), lends itself especially well. The viewer’s eye dances across the canvas, responding to the variety of brushstrokes and Hitchens’ assured use of colour. There is the hint of a red armchair, a window beyond and of course the tulips and poppy of the title, which has been daringly rendered as a brilliant spot of red surrounded by white, visually jumping from the canvas.
'I love flowers for painting… not a carefully arranged bunch such as people ought not to do - but doing a mixed bunch in a natural way. One can read into a good flower picture the same problems that one faces with a landscape, near and far, meanings and movements of shapes and brush strokes.'
In One Poppy and Yellow Lilies, we see Hitchens joyfully respond to the challenges set before him, with a skill and visual language rarely matched by other artists. Having been purchased by the present owner in the 1960s not long after it was painted, the work is a superb example to re-emerge on the market.