La Porte Guillaume-Lion, Rouen

In 1956 Richard was commissioned to do a painting to commemorate the re-dedication of the Rouen Cathedral after a major rebuilding project. The cathedral had been badly damaged in two Allied bombing raids during the D-Day push into Normandy in the WW2.

Records about the commission itself and the works which came out of it are incomplete. Richard seems to have painted at least four Rouen pictures, but it is proving difficult to unpick which ones were exhibited when because the titles of most of the works were changed from one show to the next and the picture dimensions are not always quoted. None of them seem to have been delivered to the client and we do not know who the client was.

The four works we know of are:

• Rouen - 20x24in - sold 1958 from Tyrrell and Green 'Painting Now' exhibition for £150
• Rouen 1956  - 24x20in - sold 1959 from 1959 RA summer show for £125
• Rouen Resurgent - 20x40in - sold 1968 for £350
• La Porte Guillaume-Lion, Rouen - 20x16in - last exhibited 1980 - no record of it ever being sold