Sir William Russell Flint, R.A., P.R.W.S. 1880-1969

London, Fine Art Society, July 1963;
Private collection

STRUCTURE This picture is in very good condition. CATALOGUE COMPARISON The illustration is broadly representative. PAINT SURFACE The paper is flat in the mount and does not appear to be laid down. There are no signs of foxing or water damage and no visible tears or holes. The picture is ready to hang. FRAME This picture is contained in a simple modern frame with a clean mount and under glass.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This watercolour was painted by Flint at the Château Privat at Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France, probably in the early 1950s. The models may be the local girls named Ambroisine and Lilette who posed for Flint at the Chateau, although his most famous model Cecilia Green made her debut in his art in another watercolour painted at the château entitled Château Garden, Languedoc. Flint was reticent to reveal the location of the Château Privat to his publishers, perhaps fearing interruption to his idyllic retreat. The picturesque stone château lies on the banks of the river at Gard, close to the town of Vers. It was a large farmhouse rather than a château with a crenelated tower and large hall. It was the subterranean reservoirs and ornamental pools fed by an underground spring that particularly inspired Flint and here he depicted girls bathing in the waters and listening to the reverberations of the lapping water echoing through the vaulted chamber. Flint's discovery of Château Privat is described thus; 'A chance meeting with a village schoolmaster procured for Sir William the entrée to the well guarded grounds of a château in a district he had visited many times. There he found a rich range of new themes. The château itself was too much an architectural jumble (eighth century to nineteenth century) to be paintable but close by was a labyrinth of vaults so much to his liking that it lured him from lovely sunshine into mysterious gloom and kept his brush busy.' (Keith S Gardner and Nigel D Clark, Sir William Russell Flint 1880-1969, A Comparative Review of the Artist's Signed Limited Edition Prints, 1986, p.198)