Exhibition: The Reid Gallery, London 1963 – Eliot Hodgkin 50 Still-life paintings
Article: by Marjorie Bruce-Milne
Publication: Christian Science Monitor (12/12/1963)

Exhibitions of paintings in tempera are comparatively rare; the show of Eliot Hodgkin’s still lifes at the Reid Gallery, 23 Cork Street, London, is such an occasion. The art of tempera painting, which was practiced by the ancient Greeks and the Egyptians thousands of years ago as well as by such Italian Masters as Botticelli, was lost sight of for many years. But it has been revived, and some excellent work is now done.
Tempera painting has a glowing brilliance and is practically indestructible. But it is a difficult medium, demanding not only skilled draughtsmanship but discipline from the artist. Compounded of egg yolk, mixed with a few drops of oils of lavender and poppy, a small amount of varnish and water, tempera dries very quickly and is applied in small strokes with very fine brushes. Colors are added to the egg mixture in powdered form. High skill is required in preparing the background which must not warp.
Mr. Hodgkin finds hardboard the most satisfactory, covered with oil-bound distemper. On this, when it is dry, he paints the ground color, variegated but unobtrusive, to act as a foil to the sculptured quality of the objects superimposed upon it. Having arranged the subject, the still life is first drawn with meticulous care and its outlines are then transferred to the board.
To secure the characteristically luminous quality of tempera, the background color inside the outlines is then scraped away, leaving the white distemper which will glow through the color. On this white shape the detail is then drawn in. It must have required much patience to scrape out each of the circles on which the translucent scarlet, green and golden berries of the bryony would appear.
Included in the exhibition are twenty five tempera paintings and the same number in oil. These latter require skill, of course, but so much less discipline that, when he starts on an oil, Mr. Hodgkin says he feels like a boy let out of school.
Eliot Hodgkin, who exhibits regularly at the Royal Academy and has had a number of one-man shows in New York, is known for his exquisite tempera flower paintings, but he really prefers to demonstrate the beauty to be found in such unusual subjects as fallen leaves; flints; oyster shells; vegetables and even weeds.
Through his eyes one sees unexpected elegance in “Milkweed” (11 ¼” by 9 ¼”); sculptured form in the jade and lemon-colored “Three Quinces From Aix” (15” by 9 ½”) which he tried to buy from a shopkeeper in Aix-en-Provence. They stood on a chimney piece in the shop and the astonished merchant was only too glad to present them to the “mad Englishman”.
Of the oils perhaps the most interesting is “A Pile of Delivery Notes” (18” by 18”), which Mr. Hodgkin (with permission be it said) removed from a hook at the Royal Academy and took home to paint. The dusty pinks, yellows and off-whites of the older papers at the bottom of the pile become clear and shining tints towards the top. This is a tour de force which, in spite of being and oil, must have demanded as much care as a painting in tempera.
The Exhibition will remain open until December 28th.

By Marjorie Bruce Milne. Reprinted with permission from the December 12, 1963 issue of The Christian Science Monitor. © 1963 The Christian Science Monitor (www.CSMonitor.com).