This painting was bought by the actor Alec Guinness in 1952 from Richard’s exhibition at the Redfern Gallery, Paintings on Small Panels. Richard and Alec Guinness knew each other a little because the Guinness family lived near to him and Mavis for a while.
When Richard’s father Dr Eurich retired in the late 1930s, he and Richard's mother moved down from Ilkley in Yorkshire to a house they had built for them in the New Forest. They named it Lanshawe Cottage, the same name as their house up north. When Richard’s father died in early 1945, his mother went back to Yorkshire to stay with relatives. Lanshawe Cottage was sold to the Guinnesses. Richard’s older daughter Caroline remembers their son Matthew and his red hair. She used to play with him.
Alec Guinness’s wife, Merula Salaman, was an accomplished painter as well as an actress. She had studied at the Slade some years after Richard. As far as we know, the Guinnesses were neighbours until they moved to Petersfield in the mid 1950s.
We have also discovered from a recent sale that the painting was owned by American actor Edward Herrmann. With a bit of digging we discovered that the two actors had worked on several films together and had become close friends. They also performed together in a two-hander in a West End production of 'A Walk in the Woods' in 1988-89. It was the last stage play Guinness acted in.
We do not know the details of how the painting came to be passed to Herrmann.
- Eurich family, Wikipedia, The Independent, the collector
