Diary extracts for January 1948
1st Jan 1948:
Letter from Vincent Massey in Canada saying £400 too modest [for the Balliol picture], would pay £500 (including £60 for frame)
Money in the bank
. . . so I can work all this year on my own which I haven’t done for about 8 years. The interior of King's College Chapel is the only job I have in front of me.
2nd Jan 1948:
Mavis spent a long time making a tea for a children’s party. But the performance was not very elevating. Talk about ‘infantry at mess’! Caroline also behaved badly, I was resting on our bed and so fortunately missed the performance.
3rd Jan 1948:
The Chalice
Letter from Uncle Otto saying he’d had a letter from Maria Prinke suggesting we should give the chalice to Hans Müller.
Rather an odd idea . . .
. . . it is understood that it should be handed down from eldest son to eldest son in the Eurich family. And as it was the workmanship of a relative it is of great value to me.
[unknown date]:
During the 1st week of January Richard was not well. He had two visits from the doctor who eventually said he ‘thought it was just strain and overwork".
6th Jan 1948:
Reading Mendelssohn’s letters. So good. Keen insight and lively descriptions.
6th Jan 1948:
Painting all morning on the Excalibur picture which I began some time back. The trees overhanging the mere in the background are a trouble. Try to organize them so they mean something in the design and yet to get a hint of something mysterious.
16th Jan 1948:
Started small painting “Twelfth Night”. Hilary Dingle [Caroline's cousin] and Richards's daughter Caroline dismantling the Christmas Tree.
I am painting it for the gilt frame (elaborate) with an arc top size about 14x14. It will be interesting to get the painting at one with the frame.
17th Jan 1948:
Gerhard Ludwig, a German prisoner of war over to tea from the camp at Brockenhurst. We like him very much, a sensitive sort of chap. He has a son of four who he has never seen. He is due to go back to Germany next month . . .
18th Jan 1948:
12th Night not going very well
Have realized that I have no aesthetic sensibility which accounts for my difficulties, but I think construction and imaginative work is more interesting and enduring. Pretty colour values and tricky brushwork are not in my line, just as tricky reflected lights and tone values aren’t either.
23rd Jan 1948:
Took some time to rub down the big panel for the King's College Chapel picture with sandpaper. The ground seems pretty tough.
29th Jan 1948:
. . . I decided to start painting the chapel picture, and decided moreover that I should have to start at the floor and work upwards. More likely to get the key to both tone and colour this way.