PORTRAIT OF GRAHAM OVENDEN
signed and dated Clive Barker 84 lower right; inscribed Graham Ovenden lower left
oil pastel and pencil on paper
56 x 38cm; 22 x 15in
73 x 53.5cm; 28 3/4 x 21in (framed)

Provenance
Acquired from the artist by the present owner circa 2010

Ovenden (1943-2022) studied first as a musician at the Royal College of Music before turning to paint, first attending Southampton School of Art and then the Royal College of Art, graduating from the RCA in 1968. In 1973 he moved from London to Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, where he started building a house. In the mid-'70s he associated with the group of artists that writer Laurie Lee labelled the Brotherhood of Ruralists. Others in the group included Sir Peter Blake and David Inshaw and Ovenden's wife Annie. The group did not have a common style, but they had all moved out of London to the country, and all explored and upheld the English romantic tradition of landscape painting in their work. As a photographer Ovenden was especially interested in the Victorian depiction of children, and became an authority on Victorian photographs and illustrations, writing on the subject and as editor of compendiums of images of the period.