Harold Harvey (1874–1941)

Harold Harvey (1874–1941)
Interior with a woman standing in a doorway
Signed and dated Harold Harvey/25 (lower right)
Oil on canvas
61.4 x 50.5cm

Provenance:
By descent to the present owner

The present work probably depicts Maen Cottage, Newlyn, where Harold Harvey and his wife Gertrude lived after they married in 1911. He first painted interiorsduring the First World War, when the government discouraged artists from depicting landscapes and coastal views, for fear they would fall into enemy hands. It is one of a series of beautiful and sophisticated interiors showing women and children involved in everyday activities. Certain objects, for example the demi-lune table, recur throughout these works, as do features such as the sharp perspective and the brilliant use of light which floods in through an unseen window. It is a painting that demonstrates why, the year before it was painted, Harvey was described as one of the ‘truest and sincerest of British Painters’.