W I L H E L M I N A   B A R N S - G R A H A M

British, 1912-2004

Spanish Coast IV

Oil on paper

42.5 x 54.5 cm

Signed and dated:

'W Barns Graham 1960' (lower right)

Further signed, inscribed and dated:

'Spanish Coast IV.1960/ W Barns Graham/ 1 Barnloft Studio/ St Ives. Cornwall.' (on the backboard)

In 1958, Barns-Graham visited the Balearic Islands (Ibiza and Formentera) which provided her with fresh inspiration. She began to work on a larger scale and in gouache. Prior to this, Wilhelmina had been working predominantly in oil, gouache was generally considered for smaller scale pieces. On her return to the U.K. and inspired by her Spanish sojourn, she exhibited 45 gouaches at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh in 1960, the year of the present work. They were much admired with one critic applauding the '"vigour and richness and simplicity" of the large gouaches, in which "the painter has been able to suggest vividly, with sweeping lines and planes of colour, her feelings about the Spanish landscape"' (Lynne Green, W.Barns-Graham, A Studio Life, Lund Humphries, Aldershot, 2001, p.168).

Born in 1912 Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a key participant of the St Ives Group and its contribution to English modernism in the 1940s and 1950s.  She had moved to St Ives in 1940 and, while dividing her time since the 1960s between Cornwall and St Andrews, lived there until she died in early 2004. She exhibited regularly throughout her career, and was to be rediscovered by new audiences during her final decade.

Since 1991 key exhibitions in London and at the Tate St Ives, as well as two hugely successful national public gallery touring shows, have re-established her position at the forefront of modernist British painting. Her work is found in all major public collections in the UK.

PRICE £30,000