Date: N.D.
Dimensions: 20.5 x 26 cm
Medium: gouache
Collection: Niland Collection
Provenance:

Description:
Born into an Anglo-Irish family in Dublin, Evie Hone came from a long line of artists. As a child she suffered from infantile paralysis which left her lame and affected one of her hands. Overcoming her disabilities, Hone studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art in London and the Central School of Arts and Crafts where she was taught by Bernard Meninsky.

In 1917, while attending Walter Sickert’s classes at Westminster Art School she met Mainie Jellett who became her close friend and artistic companion. In 1920 Hone went to Paris to study and was soon followed by Jellett. Over the next decade they worked side by side, first with Andre Lhote, and later with Albert Gleizes.

Composition is an exercise in Gleizes’ theories of abstraction based on translation and rotation. While Jellett’s Four Elements, also in the Model and Niland Collection, can be related directly to religious iconography, this earlier work is more purely abstract. Despite this fact, the interlocking shapes and complementary colours used in this image suggest that the experiments with form, colour and pattern that Hone was engaged in with Jellett and Gleizes were an important preparation for her later innovative work in stained glass.

Written by Riann Coulter