Diary extracts for June 1949

15th Jun 1949:

Elections at the RA

H. Lamb and thingummybob elected RA.

15th Jun 1949:

To London, taking latest painting of The Ouse at York (12x30) to Redfern for their summer show.

Talked to Patrick Heron

I found we had more agreement over painting than I should have thought from his writing. But I am afraid I don’t like his painting, nor he mine! Had an interesting round of galleries with Ruskin Spear, a delightful chap.

16th Jun 1949:

On to see the Munich collection of paintings at the National Gallery.

I cannot understand the Rubens craze after seeing the Dirk Bouts Betrayal and Ascension of Christ. Three lovely Fra Angelicos, particularly one of a chap being flung off a cliff into the sea. I was interested to see Altdorfer whom I have only known through reproductions. A fine Jan Steen of ‘The Love-Sick Lady’ quite monumental and a Terborch of a boy picking fleas off a dog, quite entertaining. I suppose a magnifying glass was used, a buckle on the boy’s leg had three different high-lights on it.

16th Jun 1949:

Went to see Camberwell School of Art.

Painting seemed a bit sleepy for all the brilliant young men teaching there.

23rd Jun 1949:

Heard of the death of Edward Wadsworth (age 59). I am very sorry about this. We had a long and pleasant correspondence during the early days of the War - we disagreed about quite a lot, but had a great deal in common. I sometimes thought his judgement shallow, he preferred wit to profound thought so that the first impact of a work of art meant more to him than living with a work and feeling its greater depths. I liked his work of twenty or more years ago best - I remember with such pleasure a large tempera of Marseilles exhibited at a retrospective London Group show. The ranks of my friends seem to be thinning.’