Tom Carr HRHA HRUA ARWS (1909-1999) Mother and Child Oil on canvas, 49.5 x 44.5cm (19½ x 17½'') Signed Exhibited: Tom Carr Exhibition, Leicester Galleries, London, November 1946, where...

Tom Carr HRHA HRUA ARWS (1909-1999) Mother and Child Oil on canvas, 49.5 x 44.5cm (19½ x 17½'') Signed Exhibited: Tom Carr Exhibition, Leicester Galleries, London, November 1946, where purchased by J. Stanley Clarke. The majority of works on display at this exhibition were watercolours, this lot was obviously ex-catalogue, and sold under the title ''Girl and Small Child'' ''Mother and Child'' is a typical example of Carr's careful observation of those close to him - in this case, probably Stella and Veronica. The setting is a modest kitchen or scullery with a wash top, looking out onto the seafront in Newcastle. The focus is very much on the intimacy between mother and child, capturing that sense of excitement and trepidation written on the child's face as she stands on the worktop. The viewer's eye is drawn to the child with her little red jumper and a suggestion of a tee shirt underneath it. The light from the tall window catches the hair of the mother and child and manages to draw attention to a copper kettle in the foreground. The sheet or bath towel hanging on the line, acting as a backdrop to the child was so much part of the country scullery in those days long before central heating. This painting, while having an echo of the Dutch painters in its essence in the view of some observers, bears all the hallmarks of the Euston Road School of painters. A decade earlier, Carr was centrally involved with the exponents that school. Their preoccupation was with colour, tone and fine drawing. Carr, having spent two years in Henry Tonks' life drawing room at the Slade learned well. Eamonn Mallie

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