The Painting
A watercolour measuring 4½" x 7". Signed Edward Stamp and dated 1987. In the artist’s
hand verso: ‘Road to Gayton, Northamptonshire. Edward Stamp 1987’.
About the Artist
Edward Stamp RI (1939- ) is a landscape artist. Born in London, he was evacuated
during the Second World War to a small farm in Dunton, Buckinghamshire, which was
to have a significant impact on his later work as a landscape painter. He studied
at Northampton School of Art, gaining the National Diploma of Design in 1961. He
worked as a freelance book illustrator and as an illustrator with Her Majesty’s Stationery
Office, but the lure of the countryside was too great and he left London to work
on the land. Whilst employed as a tractor driver, he painted and sketched the land
he worked, combining the life of farming with that of an artist until 1970. The success
of his first London exhibition in 1973 led to full-time occupation as an artist,
and his work has been shown regularly at the Royal Academy since 1975. In 1980 he
was awarded the Bronze Medal for the most outstanding watercolour by a non-member
in the annual exhibition of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, and he
was subsequently elected a member in the same year. In 1981 his wood engravings merited
his election as a member of the Royal Institute of Painter Etchers and Engravers.
A full set of 22 engravings, illustrating John Clare’s Summer Poems, were acquired
by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
The Subject
Road to Gayton, Northamptonshire. The church tower visible in the centre background
is that of St Mary’s Church, Gayton, and is part Norman and part 19th century.
