
Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
Sold for £31,250 inc. premium
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Provenance
With The Redfern Gallery, London, 1 March 1953, where purchased by the family of the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.
Mousehole was a favourite location for Paul Feiler who painted several works, as in the present example, based on the harbour of the popular fishing village. Having spent the late 1940s creating images that were indebted to Cezanne, the early 1950s saw a rapid movement towards an individual style that developed into arguably his most successful works. Painting late into the night from the kitchen of his home in the Clifton area of Bristol, these works are characterised by 'a strong linear structure; a kind of informal grid, which served not only as a means of organisation but also drew the eye to the surface of the painting; a rich, subdued palette that reflected the light and the weather over the sea and rocks and landscape; and a thick application of paint using a palette knife, with geometrical areas built up with broad strokes' (Michael Raeburn, Paul Feiler, Lund Humphries, London, 2018, p.12). As with many works of the period, Mousehole Harbour specifically notes the location in the title with the darker palette indicative of the season and time of day at which it was painted. Dating to 1952, it is likely that Mousehole Harbour was one of thirty-three paintings included in Feiler's first one-man exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in January 1953 and has resided in the same private family collection ever since.