Peter Howson

Flowers, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Unframed. In good conditon aside from slight bucking to canvas lower left.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Peter Howson is heir to the humanist traditions of Rembrandt, Goya and the German Expressionists. His paintings share their need to express, with urgent sincerity, powerful statements of anxiety, suffering and inhumanity, embodied in an isolated figure - Everyman or Christ - rather than a complex narrative composition. 

Like Goya, Howson's epiphanies were forged in war; in his case, the Bosnian war where he went as the official artist of the Imperial War Museum.  He witnessed what he described as 'one of the most brutal wars of this century'. Plum Grove, one of the masterpieces from the war commission, was acquired by the Tate Gallery.
Thematically he continues to embody his ideas in a single, suffering individual; his Falstaff is the aging boxer, 'more surreal than real, as short on intelligence as he is over-endowed with gigantic, distorted muscles'.  Bridge to Nowhere is a superb example of his work, rare on the market and offered here by its original owner.