Brought to Life

Adrian Eeles

Eliot Hodgkin (1905-1987) is best known as a painter of still life subjects beautifully executed in tempera. His depictions of everyday objects - such as lemons, radishes, dead leaves and feathers - have always been much prized by collectors. Less well known are his haunting views of bomb-sites in London after World War II, with rank weeds and wildflowers pushing up through mounds of rubble. This revealing, fully illustrated catalogue accompanies the first survey exhibition on the artist since 1990. Eliot Hodgkin is best known for his still life paintings in tempera, but there are several other facets of his career as an artist which have never been fully explored. Hodgkin is very much in the tradition of Adriaen Coorte and Sanchez Cotan, two artists that he much admired. Hodgkin and his wife were also keen art collectors, and, not surprisingly, they owned a fine still life painting...