Signed and dated l.l.: R.Eurich/58

Oil on board, 36 by 41 cm

Provenance: commissioned by Shell-Mex and B.P. Ltd. in 1958 for their Shell Guides series; The Shell Collection of Modern British Paintings, Sotheby's, Olympia, 4 July 2003, lot 118

The present work is one of the most celebrated pictorial contributions to the Shell Guides in the late 1950s, in which Shell commissioned notable artists of their day to create images to visuallly represent the distinct character of the counties of England. The text in the Shell calendar accompanying a reproduction of this picture outlines in detail the many references to Cornwall hidden within the painting:

"A rough triangle in the sea describes Cornwall, which is tilted from north to south so that the south coast is pierced by “ pills ”, which are sunken (and now tidal) river valleys. Oak-woods (1) often grow along them, originally planted to provide charcoal for smelting and oak-bark for tanneries, and churches crouch in their shelter, dedicated to Celtic saints, each with a square, buttressed tower of the fifteenth century (2). Headlands jut to sea, hills are cut by hedges of earth and stone into small ancient fields. Sycamores surround squat farmstends (3). Wheel-headed wayside crosses (4) of moor‐ land granite are relics of Cornwall of the early Middle Ages, when Cornish was the common language. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Cornwall had its own industrial revolution based on tin and copper.Roofless engine-houses (5) of old mines are common; and it was a Cornish mine engineer, Richard Trevithick (6), who invented the first steam locomotive in 1801. Cornish minerals were due to the fiery upthrust of granite. Decayed granite has left deposits of china‐ clay, now Comwall's chief export, the working of which produces “ moon-mountains ” of waste (7) which glitter on the skyline. Soft air makes Cornwall ideal for nmrket-gardening ‐ vegetables such as Broccoli (8) and for growing such flowers as Anemones (9), Violets and Daffodils. Fuchsia ( I o ) graces the hedges. Lanes in this county , whose winters have been described as languid springs, are unusually thick with ferns and wild flowers."