JOHN CRAXTON, R.A. (BRITISH, 1922-2009)
Head of Shepherd
chalk
65 x 50 cm. (25 1/2 x 19 3/4 in.)
Executed in 1949

Provenance
Sale; Nosbüsch & Stucke, Germany, 17 May 2019, lot 759, where purchased by the present owner

Exhibited
London, The Redfern Gallery, Advent Exhibition, 1-24 December 2022

“Between 1941 and 1945, before I went to Greece, I drew and occasionally painted landscapes with shepherds or poets as single figures… They were my means of escape and a sort of self-protection. A shepherd is a lone figure, and so is a poet. I wanted to safeguard a world of private mystery” - John Craxton

Head of a Sheperd executed circa 1940 is an prime example of one such depiction of an isolated and lonely figure. These were executed before his time in Greece and during the war-years, where his awareness and influence of European styles are clear. He had studied in Paris in 1937, and on an earlier trip to France aged 14, he visited the Paris World Exposition where he witnessed firsthand, Picasso’s masterpiece Guerina. This drawing is inescapable of cubist elements, line, shape and colour dominate the composition rather than shadow and perspective. Similarly, the artist’s interest in Byzantine style is too indicated here, despite the early date of the work, the shepherd is displayed with compositional similarities to icons of Christ with paralleling features of angular lines and sharp contours.

“The light in Greece is wonderful versus the grey duvet that blankets London” - John Craxton

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