Charles Mahoney
(1903 - 1968)
Set Design, c.1926-30
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Charles Mahoney (1903 - 1968)
Signed and inscribed on a label to the reverse
Oil on paper (arched top),
17 3/4 x 11 3/4 in. (45 x 30 cm.)
Size:
Height – 45cm
Width – 30cm
Provenance: The Artist’s Estate
Exhibited: The Whitworth Art Gallery, 1957; Preston, Canterbury, London, Charles Mahoney, The Fine Art Society, (cat 81)
Literature: Charles Mahoney, Liss Fine Art, 1999, pp.40-41 and pp.56-57; British Murals & Decorative Painting 1920-1960, Sansom & Co, 2013, pp.85-86 and pp.232-243
In a shaped gilded oak frame.
Mahoney was commissioned to produce a mural scheme for the Lady Chapel
at Campion Hall in 1941. The scheme was to be made up primarily of
three large panels: the Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds, the
Coronation of the Virgin, and Our Lady of Mercy. In detail and
composition the paintings owe much to early Italian example. The most
notable case is Our Lady of Mercy (Autumn), clearly inspired by Piero
della Francesca’s altarpiece at Borgo San Sepolcro. Electing to paint
directly onto canvas fixed to the walls and by daylight hours only, the
project inevitably became drawn out and Mahoney could only work in situ
during the Easter and summer vacations when he was not teaching. The
project continued into the following decade and coincided with a
serious decline in the artist’s physical health. In spite of these
problems, Sir John Rothenstein, who chose to reproduce one of the
murals as a plate in British Art since 1900 (1962, pl.60), was moved to
describe the scheme as as second …only to that by Stanley Spencer at Burghclere.
Above: The Lady Chapel at Campion Hall
A full account of the circumstances of the commission and some of the
problems involved can be found in Sir John Rothenstein’s Tribute to
Mahoney in the catalogue of the Memorial Exhibition held at the
Ashmolean Museum in 1975.
In his memoir Since 50, Men & Memories 1922-1938 (New York,1940, p. 236) the first two names that appear on William Rothenstein list of top Royal College of Art students were Henry Moore and Charles Mahoney – the list continues with the names of luminaries such as Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman Edward Le Bas, and Evelyn Dunbar. The process of reassuring Mahoney’s place in 20th century British Art has had several important milestones including the 1975 Ashmolean exhibition, the Liss Fine Art/Fine Art Society touring show (2000) and Mahoney’s predominant feature in Tate Britain’s The Art of the Garden, (2005) – but the process of reassessment still has a long way to go.
Painter, muralist, draughtsman and teacher. Born Cyril Mahoney in London – his fellow-student Barnett Freedman re-christened him Charlie at the Royal College of Art, which he attended 1922-6 after a period at Beckenham School of Art under Percy Jowett. Early on, Mahoney established a reputation as a conscientious teacher. He was at the Royal College 1928-53, from 1948-53 as a painting tutor, and was noted there for his concern for academic discipline. His portrait is included in Rodrigo Moynihan’s celebrated Teaching Staff of the Painting School at the Royal College of Art, 1949-50. From 1954 to 1963 he taught at the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting and from 1961 to 1968 at the Royal Academy Schools. He painted murals at Morley College 1928-30 with his colleagues Eric Ravillious and Edward Bawden. Unfortunately these murals were destroyed during World War II. The work led to further murals: at Brockley School, Kent, with Evelyn Dunbar; and at Campion Hall Lady Chapel, Oxford. His oil paintings are frequently of a religious nature. He was a skilled botanist, and many of his drawings depict his garden at Wrotham, Kent. He exhibited at NEAC and the RA, being made an RA elect in 1968. He is represented in the Tate Gallery and other public collections. The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, held a memorial exhibition in 1975. Exhibitions were held in 2000 at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, Royal Museum and Art Gallery, Canterbury, and the Fine Art Society plc in association with Liss Fine Art.
