Pease Hill Cottage, Ash, signed and dated 1940

Watercolour

In the early days of the Second World War, with the Battle of Britain raging overhead, Hennell had not yet been appointed an Official War Artist and was pursuing his craft in his time-honoured way: painstakingly recording his impressions of the area around his home in Kent: the houses, workers, animals and plants that formed the backdrop of his everyday life in this curiously remote and rural part of county. This is classic Hennell: vigorous, passionate, sincere. A poignant and heartfelt response to a landscape and a way of life that he knew intimately and loved.

Provenance:

Betty Hennell (artist's sister)

Private Collection