The New Forest

How did this painting get from being unsold in the Redfern Gallery exhibition of 1941, then to the American-British Art Centre, on to the American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters Fund and finally into the MOMA collection - all during wartime? 

We suspect it was something to do with Ala Story. She was first a secretary at the Redfern Gallery in London and in 1936 became its director for a time, so she would have known Richard because the Redfern was showing his work regularly by then. In 1938 she took over the Stafford Gallery and developed it into the British Art Centre, a non-profit organisation to help the Contemporary Art Society purchase work from artists for museums.

However, with war looming she moved to New York to establish the American-British Art Center, an exhibition space and club which promoted British artists. We suspect she saw Richard's painting Withdrawal from Dunkirk in the Britain at War exhibition at MOMA in 1941. The painting was widely seen, partly because it was used on the exhibition catalogue cover and on publicity posters. With this awareness in Richard's work at MOMA and her connections to the Redfern Gallery we imagine it would have possible for her to interest MOMA in a Eurich and arrange for a painting to be sent from the London.

Not to be confused with New Forest (1987)