KEN HOWARD OBE RA
London 1932 – 2022 Cornwall
Ref: CA 233
Silver self-portrait
Signed lower right: Ken Howard;
inscribed with a list of colours on the reverse
Oil on canvas: 40 x 48 in / 101.6 x 121.9 cm
Frame size: 47 x 55 in / 119.4 x 139.7 cm
Painted circa 2006
Provenance:
Richard Green, London, 2006, acquired directly from the artist,
June 2006;
private collection, UK, acquired from the above in 2006
This work is very similar to another self-portrait entitled Homage to Norbert Goeneutte
‘If I had to paint one subject all my life it would be my studio at Oriel. Every year each season is different. So is every week, day, hour, even each minute. It never repeats itself or bores me – it is continually fascinating.’[1]
Ken Howard’s London studio at South Bolton Gardens was originally owned by the Edwardian artist Sir William Orpen (1878-1931), who named it Oriel after the house in which he was born. Ken purchased the neighbouring property and restored the space, which he wrote was, ‘perpetually bathed in a cool north light, ideal for a figure painter who needs a consistent even light. The sun enters the room only late on summer evenings, in contrast to the brilliant, almost Mediterranean light that floods St Clement’s Studio in Cornwall.’[2]
[1] Ken Howard, Light and Dark: The Autobiography of Ken Howard, Royal Academy Publications, London 2011, p.260.
[2] Ken Howard with Sally Bulgin, Inspired by Light: A Personal View, David & Charles, Devon 1998 (reprinted 2008), p.114.
