JOHN CECIL STEPHENSON (1889-1965)
Tension, 1938
tempera on canvas
54 x 73 cm
John Cecil Stephenson was a British abstract artist and pioneer of Modernism. Born in County Durham, he studied at Leeds College of Art, then the Royal College of Art and the Slade in London.
In 1919 moved to London, to a studio previously lived in by Walter Sickert, 6 Mall Studios, Hampstead. He was later joined by Herbert Read, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore.
Stephenson's 1937 work Painting is in the Tate collection, two works are in the Imperial War Museum collection, and his Painting II (1937) was acquired by the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in 2008.
Provenance
Fischer Fine Art, London
Gillian Jason Fine Art, London
The Fine Art Society, London
Sotheby’s, London, where purchased 2023
Exhibited
London, Camden Art Centre, no. 24
London, The Fine Art Society, John Cecil Stephenson 1889-1965, October - November 2007, no. 11