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Evelyn Dunbar - Study for Autumn and The Poet [HMO 266]

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Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study for Autumn and The Poet [HMO 266], circa 1948

SKU: 6499
Black ink and colored crayon on brown paper
14 1/2 x 22 7/8 in. (36.8 x 58.2 cm)
Presentation:
folio

Size:
Height – 36.8cm x Width – 58.2cm

DESCRIPTION

Provenance:
Roger Folley; Alasdair Dunbar; Hammer Mill Oast Collection


Autumn and the Poet, Dunbar’s last allegorical painting, was begun in Oxfordshire in 1948/9 then laid aside for some years before completion in 1958-60. In the form
of a traditional Annunciation, the fruit-laden but moribund figure of Autumn is urging the Poet (who closely resembles Roger Folley) to disseminate truths about the essential synergy between man and creation, without which mankind cannot survive.
Evelyn Dunbar’s final completed work Autumn and the Poet was also her greatest and most significant allegorical work, a version of which she had begun in the late 1940s when living in Enstone, Oxford. It was finished in her studio at Staple Farm, near Wye, Kent during 1958-59 having absorbed her intermittently for the past 10 years or so. The two figures symbolise ‚ÄúAutumn and the Poet‚Äù; Dunbar used her husband Roger Folley as her model for the poet as she had particularly wanted him in that angular pose.
In Autumn and the Poet Dunbar’s use of colour is especially noteworthy. The mellow colours from palest gold to the deep, rich copper, purple and red coupled with the feeling of autumn glow as the light begins to fade are emblematic of a spiritual presence and sensibility.
Post War
“At the end of the war, Dunbar was still only 38 years old. Married in 1942 to Roger Folley, she was able to spend time with him at last, setting up home firstly in Warwickshire, thenin Oxfordshire, finally in Kent. In a manner similar to Stanley Spencer, to whose work her Joseph’s Dream (FIG 21) was not unexpectedly compared, she had worked in a personal and mystical mode as well as in a more objective observational one. Dunbar’s Portrait of a Retired Schoolmistress (CAT 110) is compelling in its directness, with the sitter’s determined gaze, solid figure and floral patterned overall. The black line between the shoulders forms the base for an equilateral triangle to the crown of the head. Her self-portrait (CAT 113) has the quality found in some of Spencer’s of being caught off guard in the act of painting, as the awkward positioning of the legs seems to suggest.
In Flying Applepickers (CAT 107), the theme of levitation, used at Brockley in the
soffits of the balcony, returns. Is it a metaphor of liberation after the years of pre-war unhappiness in love, followed by the privations and war? No doubt this theme of weightless bodies emanates from the spiritual seeking of a Christian Scientist, but it is also delightfully comic, with more tenderness than is found in most of Spencer’s comparable works of supernatural events in Cookham High Street. Such compositions were falling out of fashion in the post-war world, but this did not prevent Dunbar from working on a series of allegorical and deliberately mysterious paintings that continue the pastoral romantic tradition in which she was trained, as her companion painter at Brockley, Mildred Eldridge, was to do with her cycle, The Dance of Life, painted for the Orthopaedic Hospital at Gobowen in the Welsh Marches. They shared a belief that humans are most complete when close to the rhythms of the natural world, to which
Eldridge brought a more mistrustful view of civilisation’. These are themes of urgent contemporary relevance and far from sentimental.
Several of Dunbar’s major late works remain to be relocated and revealed. Autumn and the Poet (CAT 114) has the look of a post-war painting in its brushwork and slightly distorted drawing (with a hint of John Minton, perhaps), which pulls away from the more purely classical pre-war works. The iconography of poet and his fecund pin-headed muse, characterized as a season but more representative of nature as a whole, continues the celebratory quality of Dunbar’s painting of the numinous landscape as shaped by man, very different from Minton’s more sinister evocations. Lines in the composition tie the surface together in a root two rectangle, while leading the eye into the distance by a double perspective.
Dunbar’s last mural commission, Alpha and Omega (CAT 111), painted for the library at Bletchley Park Training College, fortunately survives, although not in situ. The many studies that came with the two paintings to Oxford Brookes University show Dunbar’s range of experiment in finding an appropriate iconography for a modern dress allegory. 
Both panels have the unforced otherworldly quality that Dunbar found early on and which stayed with her to the sadly early end.”
Alan Powers

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THE ARTIST

Evelyn Dunbar
Evelyn
Dunbar
1906 - 1960

Evelyn Dunbar studied at Rochester School of Art, Chelsea School
of Art (1927) and the Royal College of Art (1929’33). She painted
murals from 1933 -36 at Brockley School, a collaboration with her
RCA tutor (and lover) Cyril Mahoney (1903’1968) and in 1937
they wrote and illustrated together Gardeners’ Choice. 

In 1938 she set up the Blue Gallery in Rochester, exhibiting her
own work alongside that of Edward Bawden (1903’1989) and
Barnett Freedman (1901’1958) and others. In 1940 she was
appointed an official war artist, becoming the only woman (amongst
36 men) to be given a full time salaried position by the WAAC. 

She held her only solo exhibition at Withersdane, Wye, Kent
in 1953, although the WAAC included numerous pieces in touring
exhibitions ranging from Aberdeen Art Gallery to MOMA, New York. 

A posthumous exhibition was held in 2006 at St Barbe
Museum and Art Gallery, and in 2015 Liss Llewellyn mounted a
major retrospective of her recently rediscovered studio at Pallant
House Gallery. 

Go to artist page

MORE PICTURES BY ARTIST

SKU: 44941

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketch for Opportunity, 1936

Original price was: £550.00.Current price is: £386.00.

SKU: 44940

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Schematic plan for An English Calendar, 1938

Original price was: £925.00.Current price is: £648.00.

SKU: 44939

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Various sketches including Putti playing instruments, 1937

Original price was: £450.00.Current price is: £316.00.

SKU: 44938

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Boys at play, 1933

Original price was: £450.00.Current price is: £316.00.

SKU: 44937

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Various sketches including a self-portrait c.1928

Original price was: £525.00.Current price is: £368.00.

SKU: 44936

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Under Canvas ,1930

Original price was: £1,400.00.Current price is: £981.00.

SKU: 44935

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Two illustrations for personification of June for Country Life 1938 Gardener’s Diary

Original price was: £850.00.Current price is: £596.00.

SKU: 44934

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketches for A Farm Dictionary (Evans Bros., London, 1953)

Original price was: £550.00.Current price is: £386.00.

SKU: 44933

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Illustration for A FARM DICTIONARY by Derek Chapman

Original price was: £550.00.Current price is: £386.00.

SKU: 11614

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Seated Nude Study

Original price was: £325.00.Current price is: £228.00.

SKU: 44930

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Letterhead proof for The Children’s Shop c. 1950

Original price was: £385.00.Current price is: £270.00.

SKU: 11925

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study for a Christmas card design, 1942 [HMO 340]

Original price was: £295.00.Current price is: £207.00.

SKU: 11924

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketch for Milking Practice with Artificial Udders

Original price was: £550.00.Current price is: £386.00.

SKU: 11922

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Studies of Young Girl

Original price was: £650.00.Current price is: £456.00.

SKU: 11921

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study of Dipsacus fullonum (common teasel)

Original price was: £495.00.Current price is: £347.00.

SKU: 11920

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Phallic bud, 1937

Original price was: £395.00.Current price is: £277.00.

SKU: 11919

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

The Vegetable Gardener

Original price was: £425.00.Current price is: £298.00.

SKU: 11918

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Fashion studies

Original price was: £695.00.Current price is: £487.00.

SKU: 11917

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

House and Garden – Greetings to you!

Original price was: £325.00.Current price is: £228.00.

SKU: 11916

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Basket with Fruit and Flowers (2)

Original price was: £325.00.Current price is: £228.00.

SKU: 11914

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Drawing of Carved Oak Buffet, 19th Century

Original price was: £325.00.Current price is: £228.00.

SKU: 11913

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study for June

Original price was: £450.00.Current price is: £316.00.

SKU: 11912

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Illustration 2 for A Farm Dictionary

Original price was: £395.00.Current price is: £277.00.

SKU: 11911

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Figures for Farm Dictionary Illustration

Original price was: £495.00.Current price is: £347.00.

SKU: 11612

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Standing Nude Studies

Original price was: £450.00.Current price is: £316.00.

SKU: 11642

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Woman Sewing c.1925

Original price was: £295.00.Current price is: £207.00.

SKU: 11636

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketches of clarinets

Original price was: £280.00.Current price is: £197.00.

SKU: 11632

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

The Law-abiding Citizen! c.1927

Original price was: £745.00.Current price is: £522.00.

SKU: 11631

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketch for Bedtime, c.1926

Original price was: £425.00.Current price is: £298.00.

SKU: 11630

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Story Time, c.1926

Original price was: £750.00.Current price is: £526.00.

SKU: 11628

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Some Games…c. 1958

Original price was: £900.00.Current price is: £631.00.

SKU: 11627

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Fancy Dress Ball, 1926

Original price was: £1,475.00.Current price is: £1,033.00.

SKU: 11625

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Service! c. 1924

Original price was: £255.00.Current price is: £179.00.

SKU: 11623

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Laddie, The Intruder, c.1923

Original price was: £900.00.Current price is: £631.00.

SKU: 11622

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

What fools…c.1926

Original price was: £685.00.Current price is: £480.00.

SKU: 11615

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Unidentified Woman with Parrot Brooch, c. 1927

Original price was: £485.00.Current price is: £340.00.

SKU: 11613

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Reclining Male Nude Study

Original price was: £490.00.Current price is: £344.00.

SKU: 11611

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Head and Shoulders Male Study

Original price was: £475.00.Current price is: £333.00.

SKU: 11609

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

April Fool!

Original price was: £480.00.Current price is: £337.00.

Sacred Music on Sundays'
SKU: 11508

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sacred Music on Sundays’

Original price was: £275.00.Current price is: £193.00.

Farm Illustration 4
SKU: 11509

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Farm Illustration 4

Original price was: £375.00.Current price is: £263.00.

SKU: 11511

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Landscape 1

Original price was: £700.00.Current price is: £491.00.

SKU: 11512

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Landscape 2

Original price was: £975.00.Current price is: £683.00.

Artist Sketching
SKU: 11513

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Artist Sketching

Original price was: £700.00.Current price is: £491.00.

SKU: 11514

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

View over fields

Original price was: £975.00.Current price is: £683.00.

SKU: 11515

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

View across farm buildings

Original price was: £1,375.00.Current price is: £963.00.

Child Playing the Banjo
SKU: 11524

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Girl Playing the Banjo

Original price was: £525.00.Current price is: £368.00.

Private
Speciality Dancers
SKU: 11503

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Speciality Dancers
Various sketches
SKU: 11506

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketches and motifs for a Christmas card design, 1946

Original price was: £575.00.Current price is: £403.00.

Farm Dictionary Illustration
SKU: 11507

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Illustration for A Farm Dictionary

Original price was: £450.00.Current price is: £316.00.

Unidentified Design
SKU: 11488

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Unidentified Design

Original price was: £250.00.Current price is: £176.00.

Design for a Christmas Card
SKU: 11489

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Design for a Christmas Card

Original price was: £250.00.Current price is: £176.00.

Study fo Farmer's Dictionary
SKU: 11491

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketch for An English Calendar 1938

Original price was: £495.00.Current price is: £347.00.

Unidentified Study
SKU: 11494

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Unidentified study, c.1956

Original price was: £775.00.Current price is: £543.00.

Pealing Apples
SKU: 11497

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Florence Dunbar Peeling Apples c.1922

Original price was: £300.00.Current price is: £211.00.

Dog Begging for Food
SKU: 11499

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Miss T. and begging dog!

Original price was: £175.00.Current price is: £123.00.

Christmas Study
SKU: 11501

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Christmas Tree in a pot

Original price was: £350.00.Current price is: £246.00.

Nude Study of Woman Sitting
SKU: 11469

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Nude Study of Woman Sitting

Original price was: £600.00.Current price is: £421.00.

Nude Study with Hand on Hip
SKU: 11474

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Nude Study with Hand on Hip

Original price was: £200.00.Current price is: £141.00.

Seated Nude Study 1
SKU: 11475

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Seated Nude Study 1

Original price was: £275.00.Current price is: £193.00.

Figure Study for Women Working
SKU: 11477

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketches of two Land Girls featuring in Men Stooking and Girls Learning to Stook. Pencil 1940

Original price was: £375.00.Current price is: £263.00.

Figure Study for April
SKU: 11478

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketches for the personification of April for the Country Life 1938 Gardener’s Diary.

Original price was: £580.00.Current price is: £407.00.

Portrait
SKU: 11480

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Portrait

Original price was: £375.00.Current price is: £263.00.

Study for Seated Woman reading
SKU: 11482

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study for Seated Woman reading

Original price was: £250.00.Current price is: £176.00.

Study for Seated Woman
SKU: 11483

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study for Seated Woman

Original price was: £250.00.Current price is: £176.00.

Preparatory Sketch for Joseph's Dream
SKU: 11486

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketch for Joseph in Prison, 1947

Original price was: £600.00.Current price is: £421.00.

Seated Nude Study 2
SKU: 11468

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Seated Nude Study 2

Original price was: £350.00.Current price is: £246.00.

Wheelbarrow Study
SKU: 11448

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Wheelbarrow Study

Original price was: £280.00.Current price is: £197.00.

Vignette Sketch for Gardener's Choice
SKU: 11450

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Vignette Sketch for Gardener’s Choice

Original price was: £320.00.Current price is: £225.00.

SKU: 11452

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Studies for A Farm Dictionary (Evans Brothers, London) 1953

Original price was: £365.00.Current price is: £256.00.

Farming Sketch
SKU: 11453

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Farming Sketch

Original price was: £375.00.Current price is: £263.00.

Plant studies
SKU: 11455

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Plant studies, probably in connection with Country Life 1938 Gardener’s Diary.

Original price was: £225.00.Current price is: £158.00.

SKU: 11456

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Flowers study

Original price was: £195.00.Current price is: £137.00.

Flower Study
SKU: 11459

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Flower Study

Original price was: £380.00.Current price is: £267.00.

Various Figure Studies including a Ballerina
SKU: 11460

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Various Figure Studies including a Ballerina

Original price was: £500.00.Current price is: £351.00.

Female Nude Study
SKU: 11461

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Nude Study with artist at work

Original price was: £350.00.Current price is: £246.00.

Nude Figure Studies
SKU: 11462

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Nude Figure Studies

Original price was: £300.00.Current price is: £211.00.

Chalk Nude Study with Sketching Figure in Foreground
SKU: 11464

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Chalk Nude Study with Sketching Figure in Foreground

Original price was: £300.00.Current price is: £211.00.

Sitting Nude Study with Umbrella
SKU: 11466

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sitting Nude Study with Umbrella

Original price was: £200.00.Current price is: £141.00.

SKU: 11444

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Farmer with Shoulder Yolk – Study for Farm Dictionary

Original price was: £325.00.Current price is: £228.00.

Prune'
SKU: 11445

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Prune’

Original price was: £300.00.Current price is: £211.00.

SKU: 11447

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

‘Bottle, Bowl, Box’

Original price was: £285.00.Current price is: £200.00.

Sketch of Woman's Land Army
SKU: 11439

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketch for Land Girls Going to Bed.

Original price was: £375.00.Current price is: £263.00.

Sketch of Woman in Uniform
SKU: 11440

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Portrait sketch of unidentified WAAF officer, 1944

Original price was: £800.00.Current price is: £561.00.

Nurses
SKU: 11442

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Studies for Standing by on Train 21.

Original price was: £350.00.Current price is: £246.00.

Farming sketch with Cattle
SKU: 11443

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

The horse gin

Original price was: £325.00.Current price is: £228.00.

SKU: 11100

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Royal College of Art Sketch Club Annual Summer Camp, 1930

Original price was: £1,850.00.Current price is: £1,296.00.

SKU: 11103

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Pencil sketch for Portrait of an Airwoman, 1944

Original price was: £1,500.00.Current price is: £1,051.00.

SKU: 11095

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Portrait of a Musician, 1924

Original price was: £995.00.Current price is: £697.00.

SKU: 11096

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Ring-a-ring-a-rosies

Original price was: £880.00.Current price is: £617.00.

SKU: 11086

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Trenching or double-digging, 1938

Original price was: £525.00.Current price is: £368.00.

SKU: 11088

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

A diagrammatic explanation of trenching or double digging

£1,750.00

SKU: 11089

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Cape Capers!

Original price was: £350.00.Current price is: £246.00.

SKU: 11075

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

The Harvest of Hay, 1954

Original price was: £1,700.00.Current price is: £1,191.00.

SKU: 11074

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Nude standing with hand on thigh

Original price was: £850.00.Current price is: £596.00.

SKU: 11066

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Portrait Sketch of a Friend

Original price was: £300.00.Current price is: £211.00.

SKU: 11068

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Four studies of a nude standing leaning against a partition

Original price was: £975.00.Current price is: £683.00.

SKU: 11064

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Hop-picking, sketch for Farming Weekly, March 1954.

Original price was: £780.00.Current price is: £547.00.

SKU: 11057

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Study of a WAAF at RAF Gravesend, 1944

Original price was: £975.00.Current price is: £683.00.

SKU: 11050

Evelyn Dunbar (1906 - 1960)

Sketches of men and women involved in various activities, of unknown purpose or destination

Original price was: £500.00.Current price is: £351.00.