ALFRED KINGSLEY LAWRENCE, R.A., R.P. (1893-1978)

STUDY FOR A CLASSICAL SUBJECT, POSSIBLY THE RETURN OF PERSEPHONE
Oil on canvas
102 x 75 cm
 
 
 
 
This atmospheric, dramatically-unfinished painting may well have been a study for the more finished exhibition piece The Return of Persephone, formerly with Peter Nahum at the Leicester Galleries, London (in 2006). Lawrence also painted the subject on at least one further occasion, with that example sold at Dawson's, Maidenhead, 26.01.2023, Lot 20.  In classical mythology, Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, Queen of the Underworld after her abduction by and marriage to Hades. Lawrence's diploma piece for his graduation from the Royal Academy Schools was a single figure study of Persephone (1938, R.A. acc. no. 03/688), with a similar background and composition to the present work. 
 
 
 
Born in Lewes in Sussex, Lawrence trained at King Edward VII School of Art, at the time part of Armstrong College (a precursor to Newcastle University). He went on to study at the Royal College of Art under William Rothenstein. His studies were interrupted by the Great War and he joined up with the Tyneside Pioneers attached to the Northumberland Fusiliers as a subaltern. Even as a Pioneer he saw his share of the trauma of that war. He witnessed the action at Bray and the Somme and after the war illustrated the official account of his Battalion’s service.
 
On returning to the Royal College he was awarded a travelling scholarship in 1922 and the Prix de Rome in 1923. His subsequent travel and study in Italy greatly inspired and informed his artistic practice. He enjoyed a reputation as one of the country’s leading figure painters and portrait painters. In 1927 he was one of eight artists commissioned to paint the ‘Building of Britain’ mural scheme in St Stephen’s Hall in the Palace of Westminster. He also painted murals for the Laing Art Gallery and the Bank of England.