John Cecil Stephenson

By the end of John Cecil Stephenson’s art school training – first a scholarship to Leeds Art School then to The Royal College of Art – he was in a position to produce, in a pro – fessional capacity, still lives, landscapes and portraits. Like many painters of his generation, who had received similarly conventional instruction, he became a competent teacher, appointed in 1922, as Head of Art at The Northern Polytechnic. In this mould Stephenson might have remained a largely undistinguished painter – but in the early 1930s he found him – self at the centre of a group of artists with avant-garde credentials, and his own art underwent a remarkable transformation. By 1934 he was exhibiting groundbreaking works such as Mask (CAT. 7), at the 7 & 5 Society, and in 1937 was a key contributor to the watershed publication and exhibition Circle, where his work was showcased alongside that of luminaries such as Kazimir Malevich, Le Corbusier, Fernand Léger, Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso. What led Stephenson to become, in the words of the celebrated art critic Herbert Read, ‘one of the earliest artists in the country to develop a completely abstract style’? His remarkable journey from figurative art to abstraction is brilliantly recounted in Peyton Skipwith’s essay John Cecil Stephenson, Pioneer of Abstraction.

Between March 1919 and November 1965, John Cecil Stephenson lived in London at No. 6 Mall Studios, off Tasker Road, Hampstead. As the father figure of what Read christened ‘a nest of gentle artists’, his next door neighbours included, during the course of the decade leading up to WW2, Barbara Hepworth, John Skeaping, Ben Nicholson and Henry Moore. Such fertile ground was further enriched by visits from artists fleeing persecution – including Piet Mondrian, László Moholy-Nagy and Alexander Calder – just a few of the many internationally acclaimed artists who whilst passing through London formed part of the art set who congregated around Read’s house at No. 3 Mall Studios.

To requests a copy of this catalogue please email anton@modernbritishartgallery.com.

Works Featured in this catalogue

On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Concrete Composition, late 1930’s
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Female nude, circa 1945-1950
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Vitroslab Designs, late 1930’s
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Classical arch-top composition, circa 1930

£875.00

John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Female nude, circa 1945-1950

£450.00

John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Countryside – ( Study after Sel Cotman), circa 1930

£785.00

John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Female nude, circa 1945-1950

£250.00

John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Male Nude, circa 1945-1950

£250.00

On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Female nude, circa 1945-1950
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Scottish mountain scene, 1930
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
View over Quarry Park and the River Severn, Shrewsbury, circa 1930

£975.00

On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Panoramic landscape
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Divertimento II
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Clarabella, 1950
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstraction, 1934
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Sketchbook ‘Simple Elements’, 1957
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract in blue, brown, orange and grey
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract in red, yellow, white and blue
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract in dark blue, red, brown green and yellow, 1950’s
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract in brown, blue, purple and green
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Sketch for Triangle Series, 1938/39
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract study in yellow, light and dark brown
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Kneeling nude, c.1940
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Blue, Red and Yellow triangles, circa 1938
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Study for Fugue, 1953
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Rondo. (Subtitled “a nous la liberte”)` 1953
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Blue and yellow Figure circa 1946
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Approved Design for Festival of Women’s House
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
The End of a Doodlebug, Hampstead Heath, 1945
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Accent, 1960
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Uprights 1936/37
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract in blue, yellow and brown, mid 1940’s
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract in blue, brown and light green
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract in yellow, orange and green. circa 1942
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract in dark and light blue and brown
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Study in mauve, blue and black, circa 1944
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract in dark and light blue, green and brown
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Untitled abstract study, circa 1944
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract in brown and blue, c. 1955
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract study in maroon, blue and yellow
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abstract in brown, yellow and blue, early 1940’s
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Seated Female nude, rear view, 1944

£2,500.00

On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Tita, circa 1960
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Monody, circa 1959
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Three Graces, 1945
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Perseus and Andromeda, 1945
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Preliminary Study for Plyglass Mural Queen Mary’s College
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Abnegation, 1960
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Carpriccioso, 1960
On Loan
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Seated Male Nude
John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Life Class, early 1930’s

£1,375.00

John Cecil Stephenson (1889 - 1965)
Triple Life Study, three quarter rear view

£795.00