He was working at least 60 years after the start of the French Impressionist movement and the bulk of his work on the market today stems from the 1950s and ‘60s onwards when managed by Frost and Reed in London, who were then his sole agents.
His work has four recurring themes: flowers; the décolletage of Claudine, his younger wife; cornfield landscapes; and harbour scenes on the French Rivera. This was all pleasant commercial stuff, but no more than this. He was not a great artist.
‘Recurring subjects’ could actually translate as ‘somewhat repetitive’. When working at Frost & Reed in Bond Street in the ‘60s we would receive regular quarterly shipments from him which contained a selection of the subjects mentioned. These were in three sizes: large, medium and small.
The following shipment, or perhaps the one after, would again have pictures featuring the same subjects, but repeated in other sizes, with one or two new variants thrown in. These would again appear, in time, in different sizes. Variations on a theme perhaps!
Although we paid him a fair price for the pictures, all paid for on delivery, in time he chose to send other pictures directly to an American source at such low prices that seriously undercut our attempt to sell and promote his work to the US decorating trade and others.
This caused some displeasure in the boardroom I recall, and we had to remind him of his exclusive agency contract.
SH Waters
Pebworth, Warwickshire
