Olive Grove, Provence

In 1937 the John family discovered the Mas de Galeron, a small farmhouse set among Les Alpilles near St Rémy. Augustus described the setting: ...'a short ascent by olive groves and vineyards brought me to the Mas de Galeron, standing by a group of pines on a spur of Les Alpilles’ (A. John, Chiaroscuro: Fragments of Autobiography, London, 1952, p. 263). Within two years they had to leave, but returned at the end of the war to find the place had been broken into by G.I.s, with many canvases missing. Surviving landscape paintings from the period show John’s fascination with the 'endless sequence of exquisite landscapes’ of Les Alpilles.

We are very grateful to Rebecca John for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.