HATTIE'S SOFA

Richard Bawden who died in 2024 was the son of the artist Edward Bawden. He was a painter, printmaker, and designer.  His work is held in many public collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Tate Gallery and the Ashmolean.  He followed the figurative tradition of artists such as Samuel Palmer and the Nash brothers, his work is often of the landscape of East Anglia where he lived in Hadleigh, Suffolk.  His work shows a preoccupation with texture, colour and pattern, often focusing on domestic themes, always quirky and often from an interesting perspective.

Richard Sorrell, a fellow artist and friend of Bawden wrote a tribute for Richard Bawden after he died for the New England Art Club of which this is an excerpt; ‘There was something aristocratic and courtly about Richard - his tall good looks, his unquestioning confidence in his abilities, and his lack of self-consciousness…He loved to draw intimate interiors with cats. His cats came to define a languid, luxuriating domesticity.  These creatures would stretch out over a rug, or curl up in a basket, or walk stiff-leggedly across a room, or sit in a window… we visited their house in Hadleigh in Suffolk.  There I saw the interiors that appeared in his pictures. The house was completely devoted to art and craftsmanship.  There were fine English pots and bowls on display in a round-topped cabinet, Staffordshire pottery pieces, and rich patterns everywhere, and Richard’s printing press in his workshop.’

Medium: Etching with aquatint

Signed: Signed and titled; numbered 24/85

Size: 41 x 59cm