Samuel John Lamorna Birch, RA, RWS (1869-1955)

Samuel John Lamorna Birch, RA, RWS (1869-1955)
The Avon Gorge at Clifton, Bristol
Signed and dated S. J. Lamorna Birch (lower left), bears inscribed label on frame and stretcher ([N]o 7/ The Avon Gorge at/ Clifton Bristol/ .... Lamorna ../ Penzance/ Cornwall)
Oil on canvas
30.5 x 40.5cm

Provenance:
The Collection of the Late Austin Wormleighton (1937-2019) (lots 1-34)

Exhibited:
London, Royal Academy, 1944, no.673

This tonal work is one of seven that Royal Academicians were permitted to exhibit in 1944 and 1945. This work was the 7th such work submitted by Birch that year. However, based upon an assessment of the style, stretcher, canvas and palette, the picture probably dates from c.1917 and may have been executed when Birch visited his daughter Mornie at Badminton House School. The frame is consistent with those of Stanley Horace Gardiner (1887-1952), the artist who worked at Lamorna and who assisted Birch in his studio.

The year of 1944 was not a felicitous one for Birch. The War was taking its inevitable toll and Birch's wife, Houghton, died on June 13th. It is probable that this picture was one already in `stock` that Birch submitted to make up the full allocation of seven works. It failed to sell in the RA show and it was retained by Birch at Flagstaff Cottage. It hung above the desk in his sitting room and passed to Mornie upon Birch's death in 1955. It remained in Mornie's collection until her death in 1990.