Signed l.r.: Felix Kelly

Oil on panel, 29 by 39 cm (11 ½ by 15 ¼ ins)

Provenance: with Arthur Jeffress from whom acquired by the Hon. Lady Lowson

The New Zealand born painter Felix Kelly settled in England in 1938 and soon became famous for his somewhat architectural, whimsical pictures that possess a faintly surrealistic air. His work is instantly recognisable and became highly collectable (particularly amongst the English aristocracy). He was a fine muralist too, his 1982 murals at Castle Howard being largely funded by the success of the TV series Brideshead Revisited. In his 1994 obituary in The Independent, Amanda Harling wrote: “he invested all his paintings with that 'heartbreaking nostalgia' without playing any fancy tricks with architectural verisimilitude. How he managed this puzzled and delighted his contemporaries and will doubtless intrigue generations to come. They are a unique memorial to the golden age of English domestic architecture and also to their perennially modest creator.”