John Bratby, R.A.

London, The Millinery Works Art Gallery, John Bratby - A Famous Unknown, 13 November - 1 December 2002

Peter Davies, Bratby, Old Bakehouse Publications, Gwent, 2002, p.14, illustrated. 

There is some minor craquelure to the areas of white impasto in the upper right quadrant and to the blue impasto on the model's right leg. There is blooming to the centre of the work especially visible in the model's blue hair and in between her elbows. Under plexiglass and held in a wooden frame.
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Painted in 1972 the present work depicts Diane Hills with whom Bratby had an affair in the early 1970s. He said of the work 'THAT was Diane. I fell hopelessly in love with her a few years ago, left my wife and started on a number of love paintings. She inspired me to attack, to defeat Sickert. I became a Fauvist painting with clashing colours.'  (In conversation with Jonathan Riley, quoted in Peter Davies, Bratby, p.8)