A striking mixed-media painting by British artist Francis Hewlett (1930–2012), dated 1963. Hewlett’s work often bridged figuration and abstraction, and this early piece is steeped in that uneasy dialogue.
On a long, horizontal canvas, a hat and pair of gloves float to the left, rendered in thick impasto, their presence ghostly and almost surreal. To the right, a dark, heavily textured figure emerges — built up from paint, hessian, wood, and collaged material — its form scarred, eroded, and corporeal. The juxtaposition of the everyday (hat and gloves) with the distressed, almost brutal figure gives the work a haunting theatricality.
Executed during the early 1960s, the painting reflects the post-war British interest in material experimentation, recalling contemporaries like F.N. Souza, Leon Kossoff, and the Brutalist tendencies in sculpture and painting. It is a powerful example of Hewlett’s restless engagement with both body and object, painterly surface and sculptural depth.
Medium: Oil and mixed media on canvas Date: 1963 Artist: Francis Hewlett (1930–2012)
