Oil on canvas, 30 by 30 cm (12 by 12 ins)

Provenance: Anthony Devas

Exhibited: Serpentine Gallery, London, Lawrence Gowing, Spring-Summer 1983, no.17

Literature: Catherine Lampert et al, Lawrence Gowing, Arts Council of Great Britain Exh.cat, 1983, p.16 (illustrated in black and white)

During the War Gowing moved to the village of Chilton Foliat on the Old Bath Road just over the boundary of Wiltshire. In the studio here he painted still life subjects and a number of portraits including this head study of a boy from the village. Gowing describes this in his text for his 1983 Arts Council show: “There were the first pickings of cooking apples, of which I painted fourteen in the next five years… There was a boy from the village, who sat equally still” (op.cit, p.16).