Private
Claude Francis Barry
(1883 - 1970)
ICI FactoryMidnight oils, (535), 1959
Private Collection
Claude Francis Barry (1883 - 1970)
Size:
Height – 78.7cm
Width – 97.8cm
Barry’s lifelong exploration of the French Pointillist technique – separating colours into dots which form vibrant tones across the picture surface – make him one of the key exponents of this style in 20th century British Art. In his paintings of the First and Second World Wars, with their trademark searchlights over London, he created a powerful cycle of works, whose poignancy was transformed into joy in his subsequent glorious firework paintings celebrating the end of hostilities. In this example Barry has playfully used the patterned surface of the board to synthesise the effect of his pointlilist technique.
Barry’s later works are characterised by bold fields of pure colour – an aesthetic preoccupation which allowed him to reconnect with the Post Impressionist paintings that he had experienced first hand, in their primary incarnation, during his student years at the turn of the century.
Barry painted several oils of this ICI factory between 1959 and 1960 – his son, Rupert, was an executive with company.
Much of Barry’s early life has been pieced together from letters found
in
his briefcase after his death. Also in the briefcase ‘ along with a
very
full passport and his battered old eye-shade ‘ was an unpublished
manuscript
on painting. This is the source of his quoted pronouncements
on life and
art.
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