A little piece of Cumbria can be found at a prestige London art gallery, and there's a connection with Grasmere's Heaton Cooper Studio.
Linda Ryle, who is married to the mountain painter Julian Cooper, has two paintings accepted for the show at Browse & Darby in the heart of St James's. Julian is the third generation of artists in the Heaton Cooper dynasty, the son of William Heaton Cooper and grandson of Alfred Heaton Cooper. The exhibition, which includes early 20th Century British paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture, alongside works from the contemporary gallery artists, will run until 24th January.
Says Linda: "The paintings are two very contrasting pieces. One shows a hefty piece of hawser rope which I found on Allonby beach quite some time ago. The other is a piece of quite fragile looking hand-made paper, which Cockermouth artist Jackie Scammell gave me years ago. Often objects stay in my studio for a long time before I decide what to do with them."
Lillian Browse and William Darby formed Browse & Darby in 1977, first opening on Cork Street in the space previously occupied by highly respected partnership, Roland, Browse & Delbanco who had specialised in 19th and 20th century art since the mid 1940s.
They recently opened their new gallery at 34 Bury Street in the heart of St James’s. The gallery has long championed figurative painting, mixing contemporary artists from the Euston Road, and Slade Schools: William Coldstream, Anthony Eyton, Patrick George, Anthony Fry, and Jeffrey Camp, with classic British and French artists, including Walter Richard Sickert, William Nicholson, Matthew Smith, Edgar Degas, Auguste Rodin, and other Post-Impressionist masters.