Paintings

Following Richard’s success at the Goupil, Edward Marsh then introduced him to Rex Nan Kivell at the Redfern Gallery. Richard  later described Rex’s visit: . . . he came to see my work and he sort of threw things about the floor you know, and he said “Well, I don’t know. Show me some in a year’s time.”’ Richard’s eyes had been badly strained by the concentrated work he’d done for the show of drawings and his oculist had told him to change his way of working or risk lasting damage to his eyesight. So he decided to return to painting ships and the sea and seaports. He visited Weymouth again and other small ports along the coast.

He was aware of the warnings he had been given about fashion, and sea paintings were not fashionable. After a year however, Rex was invited to see Richard's marine-themed work and said 'Oh, we must have a show of these!’ and a solo show at the Redfern was booked for April 1933.

Meanwhile Richard’s younger sister Evelyn who was a matron at Guy’s Hospital introduced her friend Mavis Pope to Richard. Her matchmaking idea worked . . . Richard painted Mavis' portrait and through this and their conversations, they fell in love. If he was to marry, the success of the Redfern show became even more critical in proving his worth!

He spent the winter months in Lyme Regis (November 1932 to February 1933) working every day, counting how many pictures he had painted, often in freezing conditions. His diary for these months express hard non-stop work, apart from reading a few books and trying to play the clavichord when the sea wasn’t too noisy!

His brother Hugh stayed with him for a few nights in January. He describes the arrival of a ship loaded with cement in the dark of the early morning. The ‘Mary Eliza’ from Hull. Richard’s later beautiful painting of this unromantic boat became one of his most popular images.

Another day in January he reported: 'Simply bitterly cold. Frost and east wind. A dismal morning. Got up rather late but managed to get on with work. Had to have an overcoat on, hands quite numb with cold, feet too.’ By early February he counted 40 paintings done in the space of about 12 weeks. The Redfern exhibition took place at the end of March. It did reasonably well and Rex went on to give him 15 more shows through to the 1950s.

He and Mavis planned to get married, helped by the offer from Richard’s mother to give them £700 to build a house in the New Forest (an area Mavis was familiar with) and much cheaper than London. The family tale goes that the sale of ‘The Blue Barge’ to the Contemporary Art Society in August 1934 for £100, enabled them to marry.

In October 1935 their son Crispin was born, but they were still living hand to mouth financially.

They were a couple of miles from Southampton Water, so he and Mavis saw the liner Queen Mary on her 'trial run’, then in dry dock and her glorious maiden voyage, all of which he painted with enjoyment.(April/May 1936). In May 1937 his picture 'Dry Dock Southampton' (1935) was accepted for the Royal Academy summer exhibition.

Early in 1938 Richard’s parents came to live near them in the village. The idea was that the climate on the south coast would be beneficial for his mother.

In 1938 Richard and Mavis made a puppet theatre and glove puppets. There is a description of them going to give a performance to a couple of hundred guides in the local W.I. Hall and ending up running there with all the paraphernalia tucked under their arms because the car conked out as they set off.

Richard had another Redfern show in May 1938 and Mavis started a little nursery school at the back of the house for local children the same month. She was also much involved in the big Pacifist Convention in Southampton with the star speaker being George Lansbury. The worry of impending war was depressing picture sales.

Mavis started  to give a series of WEA lectures on art.

New Years Day 1939, Richard finished a composite picture of Southampton which was exhibited at the Redfern and then sent to the International Exhibition of Paintings at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh USA where it was sold.

Richard made a 5-day trip in May to Antwerp on the SS Harrogate, returning via Dunkirk and St Malo. 'Started painting Flushing (20x24) for a show by French and English in Australia’. But probably because of political unrest the picture remained in the UK being shown twice at the Redfern. He started to paint ‘Antwerp’ and he also had sketches for a painting of Dunkirk before the outbreak of war. (The last 3 sentences might be better in the timeline?)

This journey would prove useful the following year.