"The Pottery Loft"

"The Pottery Loft"
Rare English Naive School Portrait of A Man Holding a Racing Pigeon
Oils On Canvas
Signed 'EH Windred' and Dated '1912'
English c.1912

27 ½” high x 23 ¼” wide

Provenance: Private Collection of the late Hans Schwarz, (NEAC, RWS, RP, RBA)
Austrian Born Expressionist Artist who lived and worked in Britain, 1922-2003.
Examples of Schwarz’s work form part of public collections including The National
Portrait Gallery, London.

Edward Henry Windred is one of the most celebrated British Naïve
Painters of Racing Pigeons. A Barber by trade, he lived and worked in the
New Cross area of London and was an enthusiastic Pigeon “Fancier”
himself. He is reputed to have travelled to many meetings, and taken
commissions to make portraits of Prize winning birds. Apparently he kept
a small group of pigeon profile silhouettes and stencils, from which he
selected the closest likeness of each bird he depicted, drew the outline
on the pre-prepared canvas and subsequently painted in the individual
markings and details. Windred’s works have a particularly strong naïve
graphic appeal and character and are held in public and private collections
of Folk and Naïve Art. The present example is the only known Windred
portrait depicting a human being.

Ref: 5936