Commissions and Change...

1st Mar 1946:

Got down to working on the King in the Eton picture. Got in a mess with it.

3rd Mar 1946:

got into a mess trying to portray the Provost. Can’t get a likeness.

4th Mar 1946:

Anniversary of poor little Joanna’s death. Caroline still talks about her and it is very difficult to know what to say to her questions.

11th Mar 1946:

150 at the meeting in Hythe, many socialist gains. This meeting certainly showed a keen spirit which has never been before.

11th Mar 1946:

Working hard all day, it is going to be a race against time.

15th Mar 1946:

Went to see Constable show

I thought ‘Salisbury Cathedral from the Close’ really wonderful. I used to think it one of his failures.

Went to see Peter Grimes

. . . rather surprised at a grindstone being used as a capstan! Peter Pears singing magnificently.

16th Mar 1946:

Ensor show at National Gallery

. . . disappointing. He seems to have no constructive power. The paintings are also in very poor condition too.

Old Masters

The Death of Procris as good as ever, and Jan Steen knocks Vermeer into a cocked hat. De Hooch so good also. The St Giles picture still one of my favourites.

17th Mar 1946:

Called on Devas. Moyniham came in too.

18th Mar 1946:

'Cliffords Tower' sold at NEAC show

. . . thus upholding my record of selling something at every show there since I was elected member.

19th Mar 1946:

Got into a hell of a mess with painting the buttresses of Eton chapel. In fact the whole picture looks rather a mess today.

22nd Mar 1946:

Today decided to say ‘Finis’ to the Eton picture after six months of hard work

24th Mar 1946:

Painting seascape of storm breaking over a fishing village.

28th Mar 1946:

Painting in the morning on a 16x20 landscape (evening) begun some time ago.

31st Mar 1946:

Had a private view to a few neighbours of the Eton picture. Mrs Tetley said:

. . . and did you do it all yourself? !

1st Apr 1946:

Left Landscape with Barge to dry a bit.

Started again on Elephant picture.

Making drastic alterations, simplifying.

I find I may be too much occupied with technical problems and must broaden out. Try to get the feeling of wonder, how else can one expect to move a beholder if not moved oneself?

3rd Apr 1946:

Up to London by car

with the Eton picture on top, frame and all!

25th Apr 1946:

At the RA

The Eton picture well hung, but as usual looks small and spotty.

26th Apr 1946:

Electing ARAs.

I was amused at Rushbury standing over us ‘reds’, saying we couldn’t vote for Bawden. “He’ll never send any work in. Stanley was the same, and he pissed on us at the first opportunity."  

Queen Charlotte looked gravely down.

9th May 1946:

Richard had been persistently unwell for some time.

. . . [Dr Brierly] came today and had a good look at me. He seemed to think it was either my lungs or teeth or both. So I am to be x-rayed.

9th May 1946:

Started painting Escort-carrier with Rainbow (16x20) for George Barnes

10th May 1946:

Vincent Massey liked the Eton picture. Asks Richard

to paint Balliol College Oxford with all the men and women from the services who came and had short studies there during the War. We agreed on the price of £300 without frame.

13th May 1946:

x-rayed at Lyndhurst. Dr. Brierly thinks teeth had better come out.

17th May 1946:

Eton picture reproduced in this week’s ‘Listener’.

25th May 1946:

Camille Pisarro’s letters to his son

How I admire him at the age of 56 championing Seurat and changing his own style, and losing friends because of it. But he was right.

26th May 1946:

Started “The Man with a Sword” (50x30)

It is going to be a tough nut. Caroline asked if it was a Cave Man!

28th May 1946:

Mavis to London for meeting at Albert Hall of delegates for Women’s Institutes . . .  very good, not too parochial. The Queen was there.

1st Jun 1946:

Mayor of Westminster rang to ask him to do a painting of Churchill being given the freedom of the city of Westminster!

What next?! It doesn’t look a very interesting subject or setting, but something might well be made of it, and if well paid, may help to keep things going. (£400-£500!)

6th Jun 1946:

At Green & Stone (framer)

Found the missing ‘Abbotsbury’ (40x40) in their cellar. Took it to Nan Kivell, much damaged by war time flooding.

6th Jun 1946:

To see the Mayor of Westminster

The ceremony took place at Church House where UNO is sitting It might be interesting as it was by artificial light, warm and honey-coloured.

To Green and Stone asking them to carve some frames for me.

11th Jun 1946:

Crispin got 1st and 2nd prizes in an inter schools art exhibition.

One of the Queen Mary seen from the air and another of a lorry with a soldier standing by it. Another of an ERF lorry by a garage, all of them most excellent.’

11th Jun 1946:

Green and Stones for some old pictures and frames. Old one of Weymouth harbour (34x31) still looks good but I think I will repaint it.

14th Jun 1946:

Col. Astor approves Eton picture . . . how much do they owe?

I am writing for £500 to include frame and all expenses. I hope they won’t baulk at it.

20th Jun 1946:

Caroline has whooping cough

25th Jun 1946:

French Show at Lefevre Gallery, London. Met Pasmore there.

He likes the fluffy Renoir landscape and Delacroix. A magnificent Cezanne landscape and tulips in a vase. Two little Seurats which were excellent.

25th Jun 1946:

To Cambridge to look round the Colleges with K. Harrison and met Provost (he with the stick in Eton Picture)

28th Jun 1946:

Started 1^st Cambridge subject . . .   all on the spot in Cambridge it seems. [King's Cambridge Looking Eastwards from the Backs and Trinity College, The Wren Library and River Cam]

2nd Jul 1946:

. . . got down to the 2^nd subject on the river which has been worrying me for some time. I think I have solved the problem by blending 2 view points which will bring it into a longways canvas instead of an upright, which I didn’t want to do.
[King's Cambridge Looking Eastwards from the Backs and Trinity College, The Wren Library and River Cam]

3rd Jul 1946:

In Cambridge

A terrific thunderstorm late at night. A wonderful sight to see King's Chapel silhouetted against the sky with lightning, half the chapel being dimly lit by the lamp at the Porter’s Lodge streaking across the lawn. It only needed a mad organist playing some fantastic fugue by Liszt to complete the melodrama.’

3rd Jul 1946:

a large swan came buzzing over down on to the water in front of my subject this morning It was perfect, such a swoop and curve and stretch of wings.

6th Jul 1946:

To London to deliver framed escort carrier picture to G Barnes at the BBC.

24th Jul 1946:

[Two days] drawing at Oxford for Balliol picture. A hasty drawing of Lindsay (master of Balliol)

26th Jul 1946:

Motoring back from Balliol

Storms seem to be about, but did not pass through any myself. Later heard disastrous damage done to crops. The fates seem to be against food production in the most vital year of all time.

19th Sep 1946:

Staying with Kenneth Harrison at Cambridge for more drawing

23rd Sep 1946:

Motored back to London, having had a hairbreadth escape from a car coming towards me which seemed to be quite out of control.

First to Redfern with two unsatisfactory paintings to send to the NEAC. [Winter Seascape, Landscape Study]

They say they sent a painting for UNESCO, but I can’t think which one it is . . . [Hampshire Coastal Scene (1937)]

Then to Green and Stone to collect frames and stretchers. The new carrier on top of the car took these very well.

Saw many smashes and careless driving on the way back home. No wonder there are so many fatalities on the roads.

28th Sep 1946:

Painting all day up to 6pm on The Man with a Sword.

It is in an awful mess, but will have to peg away at it.

29th Sep 1946:

The BBC 3^rdProgramme started tonight . . .

29th Sep 1946:

Started a small painting of The Dreamer, a sleeping figure in a cornfield.(finished 2^nd October 1946)

30th Sep 1946:

Painting in the morning. In the afternoon had four more teeth out, including three front ones which were eaten away at the roots. I hope this will make a difference to my general health.

3rd Oct 1946:

Nellie [old family friend] brought pears and grapes

I was so taken with them that I had to start a still life painting of them right away.” (Finished on the 6^th October)

7th Oct 1946:

Nevinson died today.

7th Oct 1946:

London

Went to see about repairs that want doing to the “Three Bridges”. Found it was the rubbed parts which are intended to be there, and in any case someone has varnished it, so nothing could be done.

8th Oct 1946:

NEAC Jury: Lord Methuen, G. Spencer, W. Dring, Guthrie, E. White, Cheston and Cundall on jury.

About 2,000 paintings to look through, a poor lot of work

9th Oct 1946:

Saw Gwen John’s memorial show.

Henry Moore’s show mostly drawings.

the sculpture more like window dressing models than anything else.

11th Oct 1946:

Mavis gave her first lecture at Lymington on ‘Design in the Home.’

Had my first set of fake teeth in! It seems a mouthful! Hope to get used to it.

15th Oct 1946:

Bought a wooden ladder to sit on when painting large canvases. It saves having to stand which is tiring.

16th Oct 1946:

A talk on the radio, Schools programme, about the 'Queen Elizabeth' from the ship itself. They said ‘you will hear the siren’. It blew, and then a few seconds later I heard it again coming across the water from Southampton.

After lunch Mavis and I went down to Hythe to see her off on her maiden voyage as a passenger liner. About 1,000 people on Hythe Pier. Craft of all kinds about, and planes of every description, including a helicopter hovering around. It was a grand sight. She steamed out most majestically sounding her deep siren in salute. Molotov and Bevin & co are all on board.

24th Oct 1946:

Frames of Cambridge pictures to G and Stone to be gilded. [King's Cambridge Looking Eastwards from the Backs and Trinity College, The Wren Library and River Cam]

Lunch with Devas. Victor Pasmore there in strange clothes like this: [see drawing!]

My seascape (winter) had sold at NEAC for £75. It looked bad I thought.

Got the huge carved frame on the car at G & Stone and came home in the dark most of the way.

3rd Nov 1946:

Collected about a stone of acorns in the Noads for the hens. When crushed up they should help considerably as there is precious little to feed them on.

3rd Nov 1946:

We decided we would purchase a piece of land from David [Mavis' brother] up on the Forest where we hope to build a house eventually.

Nothing came of this.

4th Nov 1946:

Started work on the Churchill painting for Westminster. I think there is a lot to be learned from it. To get the glow of the soft artificial light will be an interesting problem.

5th Nov 1946:

Digging in the garden for a bit to get cabbages in. Feeling better than I have done for a couple of years. The food shortage is going to be a problem more than ever.

30th Nov 1946:

With Mavis to the presentation of Knighting of Provost by old Etonians to the College. Sir Oliver Leese speech. Sir Jasper Ridley there and others. The “river overflowing and Eton practically cut off.”

2nd Dec 1946:

To Mayor of Westminster’s secretary for details for the picture of Churchill. Then to RA to see The King’s Pictures.

3rd Dec 1946:

Heard from Mariele [Maria Prinke, Richard's cousin] in Germany about terrible food shortage.

1st Jan 1947:

3 January

This day finds me still working and cursing over the two Cambridge pictures. [King's Cambridge Looking Eastwards from the Backs and Trinity College, The Wren Library and River Cam]

4 January

Still painting and cursing.

2nd Jan 1947:

Caroline’s party went quite well, but only a dozen small children make me wonder whether Heaven isn’t Hell.

12th Jan 1947:

Crispin staying with the Popes [Mavis' parents].

He told [Mrs Pope] indignantly that Caroline never did any housework! This being particularly amusing when one considers what he does!

17th Jan 1947:

In Cambridge

Had the grand experience of playing the organ of King’s College Chapel for two and a half hours (Buxtehude, Bach and Brahms).

17th Jan 1947:

K Harrison delighted with the two pictures and discussing another of the chapel by candlelight for next winter (£300)

22nd Feb 1947:

Have been painting snow scene during the last week, a memory of Pateley Bridge and round about. Hope to finish it later, but hardly feel it will be done in time for the RA

24th Feb 1947:

Weather is still punishing cold. This is the longest spell we have had in living memory. What with electricity cuts and gas and coal shortage, it makes things difficult.

4th Mar 1947:

2^nd anniversary of the death of poor Joanna [their daughter who died aged three months].

4th Mar 1947:

A bouncing daughter born at 10.30 am. She looks mature and hefty, the sort get to the front of the queue, put her foot in the door and get what she wants! . . . She looks a regular gorilla, puce coloured!

19th Mar 1947:

The floods in the Fens and other places are the worst in memory. The farmers say there will be no harvest this year if the water can’t be pumped away by mid-April.

23rd Mar 1947:

Digging the potato patch in the evening, Caroline on the swing keeping up conversation.

What has happened to the head of the statue? - I know, I suspect the fox took it when he got two of our hens!

28th Mar 1947:

Finished Churchill picture (33x44)

Very far from satisfied with it. Improvements would be wings sprouting from the little reporter on the right, turning him into the Recording Angel! And a few skeletons and skulls and other paraphernalia about.

29th Mar 1947:

Worked on Nightingale picture

31st Mar 1947:

. . . up to London by car with the Churchill picture. To Mr Keeling’s house . . .  Mrs K quite intelligent and everyone seemed to like it very much. He wants a duplicate to be made to have in his dining room and to have dinners under it.

15th Apr 1947:

The Queen Elizabeth stuck on the Brambles shingle off Calshot.

We went in the evening and witnessed the tugs getting her off after this morning’s attempt had failed. A grand sight, the fog coming on just as she got off.

20th Apr 1947:

Started painting on the Northern Landscape again [Northern Landscape (1947-68-75)]

24th Apr 1947:

RA elections

We managed to get Robert Buhler in which seems a good thing. I went to his house and left a note. Later saw him outside Chelsea Arts Club after Moynihan and others had been plying him with drink.

We then elected Bawden ARA. Munnings was livid.

11th May 1947:

Have been working on several small and started larger versions of paintings: Baptism, Harlequin, Refugee, Mother and Child, Drowning Man, The Nightingale,Man Asleep in Cornfield.

13th May 1947:

Someone is kicking up a fuss about their portraits in the Churchill picture. Keeling has been writing round telling people I will give them sittings to improve their likeness!

We have come to the conclusion that the portrait of Capes the mace-bearer has stolen the picture and that is the annoyance caused to the other sitters

15th May 1947:

Telegram from Nan Kivell saying there was an offer of £75 for the `Continental Port ‘ (40x50). I decided to accept this if he consented as the picture has been everywhere and we must get rid of it.

17th May 1947:

Had a dream that I took the robin’s eggs that are in the garage nest out, and found they were stamped:   ‘Robin-a-Thrush & Co.’

1st Jun 1947:

Started to paint a woman with baby in a field of buttercups. Have decided to paint what I like at weekends.

5th Jun 1947:

Cooler today. Yesterday the hottest ever. Got two food parcels off to Germany.

5th Jun 1947:

Crispin ill with ear infection at St George’s. Lasted until the 9th.

15th Jun 1947:

Crispin had earache all day . . . so Dr Walker came along to give an injection. [But Crispin was allergic to the penicillin]

15th Jun 1947:

Crispin sick! all over the bedclothes. I worked for hours on the girl in the buttercup meadow trying to keep it light.

17th Jun 1947:

Crispin much better. We went to Lyndhurst to get emergency card on his ration book.

18th Jun 1947:

Oxford to draw J N Bryson for Balliol picture.

15th Jul 1947:

Took Mother to York (to live) dropping Crispin at Harpenden on the way.

21st Jul 1947:

Moved my painting gear into the schoolroom as it is far too hot in the studio.

4th Sep 1947:

Mavis fell from loft and broke her elbow very badly. Stayed in hospital till the 10^th Sept. Caroline to Ashcrofts, Philippa to Meg. Crispin stayed at home.

20th Sep 1947:

Completed paintings this week:

Northern Landscape(28x36)
The Dreamer (cornfield) (24x32)
repainted Herzogin Cecilie (30x40)

25th Sep 1947:

London for portrait drawings. (Churchill improvements.)

27th Sep 1947:

Painted all day in the RA Schools and next morning. [We wonder if Richard had managed to have the Churchill painting moved to the RA Schools premises so he could do the repainting in London]

6th Oct 1947:

Varnished Churchill picture . . .

Delivered the painting to Westminster Hall the next day

8th Oct 1947:

Mavis went to Newtown to be with Vivien [her oldest friend] whose Mother was dying . . . stayed till the 15th!

[We are not sure what happened to us children. And then they obviously met up in London as they went to the National Gallery to see pictures which had been cleaned . . . "a great improvement".]

3 days later Vivien arrived to stay, 'in a nervous state and needing rest’.

8th Oct 1947:

Started painting of sherry glass and halved apple on saucer.(Finished on the 11^th October)

Had the Balliol picture photographed.

11th Oct 1947:

Began painting of dahlias in black jug with bird handle.

He finished it on the 13th

not very satisfactory owing to the flowers having faded and drooped

24th Oct 1947:

The question of lighting in the Massey Room is very difficult. There is next to no daylight, and the electric light by candle sconces round the walls.

24th Oct 1947:

Took Balliol picture to Oxford.

2nd Nov 1947:

Painted the subject of Excalibur as remembered at Catterick when I was a boy.

25th Nov 1947:

Went to Fawley Church to make drawings and get ideas for subject of Harvest Festival originally seen in Cornwall during the war. Started painting right away in the afternoon (50x30)

11th Dec 1947:

Leicester Galleries to see Anthony Devas show

I get the unfortunate impression that he is going downhill . . . 

Then to Pasmore’s exhibition at Redfern

First impression disappointing but it grows on one. Drawings very good.

12th Dec 1947:

Van Gogh show at Tate (100 paintings, 80 drawings)

. . . simply magnificent

Then to the really splendid Indian show at the RA. Hardly anyone there. The sculpture so grand.

Then in to Pasmore’s show again and thought it good.

12th Dec 1947:

Cambridge in afternoon, Evensong by candlelight.

13th Dec 1947:

Making notes for the painting of King’s chapel by candlelight. The windows are being put back and as the light dies the colour shows very slightly on stonework.

13th Dec 1947:

Most amusing comic party with Dons in the evening. Sat next to EM Forster. Rather shy. Not in bed till after 1am.

14th Dec 1947:

To service in the morning. Boris Ord played great Fantasia by Bach (in G). Sat up behind the choir.

14th Dec 1947:

Waxed the 2 paintings done a year ago.

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:

12^th 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.

1st Feb 1948:

Started painting the organ screen in the Chapel picture

3rd Feb 1948:

Old Mr Vincent [one of Mavis's relations]

wants me to paint a picture for the family with some of them (very small) in it. Rather a good idea. So we decided on £100 with frame extra. This will certainly come in very nicely if we are hard up in a year’s time.

7th Feb 1948:

Worked on the 'Harvest Festival' again (50x30). It looked awful when I got it out, made me feel no end depressed.

8th Feb 1948:

Decided that one of the things which has made the Harvest Festival not right in scale is that about 4” must come off the bottom, there being far too much floor. So started extreme alterations.

9th Feb 1948:

Working hard on H F (46x30) something seems to be getting going on it now.

10th Feb 1948:

Funny how Grock (the Dalmatian) lets a fart or breaks wind and he thinks something has bitten him! Jumps up with his tail between his legs and goes out of the room if the door is open, looks at the hearth rug to see if there is anything running about.

10th Feb 1948:

Started painting again on Excalibur. It seems everlasting, but the fact has to be faced that it is not what I want.

11th Feb 1948:

In the evening thought quite suddenly of another vision of childhood picture, sailing fireboats (paper) down a tunnel. Bradford Back perhaps. Boys watching them and gasworks etc coming up over the top of the coping – a good subject I think. [Paper Boats (1951)]

19th Feb 1948:

Painting all day on the old ‘Pears and Grapes’

22nd Feb 1948:

Walk with Grock in the snow:

Having observed the remarkable camouflage of animals in snow in patches, and having watched Mr Crouch’s cows in the heather and gorse, I decided to have a quick go at a picture of such, so started a 20x24 but did not get as far as I had hoped owing to bad light. [Winter Landscape 1948]

4th Mar 1948:

To Academy Hall for Modern Painting and Sculpture. Gertler

. . . too many Chiricos. Good Modigliani, Epstein’s Bernard Shaw, wonderful. The first Paul Klee originals I have seen. Poor Picasso’s. Good small Rouault and Chagall.

9th Mar 1948:

Working all day on Excalibur (never ending!) 

Finished on the 11th. [Remembrance of Things Past (1947)]

12th Mar 1948:

Took Harvest Festival and Excalibur along to Mudge at Fawley to be photographed for the press.

RA Illustrated is going to be issued again this year.

Painting again on ‘animals in the snow’.

16th Mar 1948:

Into Southampton.

The hairdresser told me there was a good show of French paintings at Art Gallery so I went there and found the Peto Collection on view.

The colour is all very beautiful and makes the pictures in the Gallery look very muddy. Even Kit Wood’s ‘Woman at Prayer’ looked dull, but I think the toplight has something to do with it.

17th Mar 1948:

Letter from ‘Life-Time’ [Time-Life?] to say that in Churchill’s memoirs they are reproducing in colour my painting in the Tate Gallery of ‘Survivors on Upturned Boat.’ [Survivors from a Torpedoed Ship (1942)]

20th Mar 1948:

David [Mavis' brother] and Doreen’s wedding. Caroline bridesmaid.

21st Mar 1948:

The visit of Rex Nan Kivell

. . . came down to see us in his huge Horch car. (The only one in England.)

21st Mar 1948:

Visit from Rex

. . .  I think he saw what I was getting at in my work, but is a bit puzzled by the added naturalism. Says the critics will be buzzing round! That remains to be seen.

22nd Mar 1948:

Putting glass on ‘Excalibur’ - packed this one, Harvest Festival and ‘Buttercup field’ (15x18) to take them to the Redfern ready for the RA.

. . .  Dorothy Searle thought they were a throwback to Victorianism. Rex still likes them but confesses he wants to giggle! Peter Cochrane a bit quiet and not sure what to make of them.

What I can’t understand is that they say the development is surprising. I am quite unaware of it and can’t see what the difficulty is. They seem to think in the atomic age everyone must do abstract work! But what reasoning there is behind this I don’t know. It seems to me to be a shelter for the incompetent and shallow-minded.

To the Tate to see Paul Nash memorial show

very good, some outstanding work, perhaps the ‘window’pictures.

23rd Mar 1948:

Crispin’s last day at St. Georges

. . . sorry to leave in many ways.

. . . Alternate friendship and quarrels with John Heaton upset him so. Heaton carries on as though nothing had happened and Crispin takes it to heart.

25th Mar 1948:

Started painting on a 20x30 canvas what I shall probably call ‘The Elysian Fields’, funeral procession through fields with haystack with figure recumbent on it.

28th Mar 1948:

. . . Later went to a cocktail party somewhat against my will at the Sanders. The place seemed to be chock-a block with stupid looking young men of 6ft 6”, and overdressed and made-up elderly women.

1st Apr 1948:

Journey up to York (with Crispin) by train to see Richard's Mother

tractors of brilliant colours working everywhere. Plenty of horse ploughs still, some fine horses.

5th Apr 1948:

Bus journey with Crispin and Jasper to Ilkley took 3 hours.

Crispin says all people here talk Yorkshire, but people in Hampshire, don’t all talk Hampshire . . . true.

9th Apr 1948:

Old Mr. Munt (a former mate of Aubrey Beardsley) is ill with pneumonia. [lived at 'The Cottage' opposite]

14th Apr 1948:

To the docks with Crispin and Mr. Blackhall

. . .  the graving dock with Arundel Castle being overhauled, saw 1^st flying boat come to its dolphin moorings by the Town Quay. Then we went onto the Queen Mary.

16th Apr 1948:

Crispin comes back from Brockenhurst Grammar School looking quite bright and chirpy, seems to find plenty to laugh at.

17th Apr 1948:

Painted organ case in the ‘Chapel’ but trumpet angels will have to be left till the roof is settled.

18th Apr 1948:

Started the vaulting in the ‘Chapel’ picture. Looks as if this part may take a month or so.

23rd Apr 1948:

RA elections

Margaret Fisher Prout got in but not William Roberts!

25th Apr 1948:

painting the ‘Chapel’ all day.

26th Apr 1948:

Silver Wedding of the King and Queen.  Official holiday.

26th Apr 1948:

We went to the sandpit on the way to Lyndhurst.

Made a drawing (preliminary) for a painting there.

27th Apr 1948:

Decided to put the ‘Chapel’ away for a bit to harden as the under painting rubs off when glazes are applied.

Started on 12^th Night again for Schools show at Tate in June.

30th Apr 1948:

RA Private View

On the whole we felt we didn’t want to come to a private view again

3rd May 1948:

Started painting seascape 20x24 probably called The Return ostensibly for Schools Exhibition next month.

5th May 1948:

Letter from Nan Kivell saying Cptn Newman had bought Remembrance of Things Past at the RA.

Very good news as I haven’t sold anything apart from commissions for ages.

7th May 1948:

Painting all day on ‘The Return, made no progress whatever. Most humiliating.

14th May 1948:

Started a small painting of 2 tigers for the Schools Show, but it may not come to anything.

25th May 1948:

Packed up 3 paintings for the ‘Paintings for Schools’ show at the Tate. The Return (seascape) 20x24, ‘12^th Night’ and ‘Tigers’

28th May 1948:

Painting all day on the ‘Chapel’ picture which looks as though it is slowly going ahead, as the tonality is all there. The thing is to indicate the structure as subtly as possible keeping the whole luminous with restricted colour.