1938 – 1990

Works from the Studio Estate

My favourite memory of Edward Piper is going with him round Oxfordshire taking pictures for a series of colour postcards. In Dorchester Abbey Edward erected his tripod over the famous tomb in that church of a crusading knight, when an angry cleric, in appearance and manner the image of Captain Mainwaring, came bustling towards us. “Do you mind telling me what you’re doing?” he spluttered. “I’d rather answer that” Edward said calmly “when I’ve finished doing it.”

Edward’s father John Piper was the son of a solicitor who founded the firm of Piper Smith and Piper in Vincent Square, London. I often thought that John, although never at all keen to follow in his father’s footsteps, nevertheless liked the idea of a family firm and had himself started one – only of artists rather than solicitors. Edward dutifully assisted his father in many of the family concerns, notably the massive, unending and poorly-paid job of taking photographs for the Shell County Guides. Though Edward’s painting style was obviously derivative of his father’s, he was much more adventurous in his choice of subject matter (witness his saucy nudes) and much more widely travelled (John was proud of the fact that he never once went in an aeroplane).

Edward’s premature death was a terrible blow to his family, as it was to the many lovers of his paintings. We can only rejoice that the family business is still being kept going by his talented sons Luke and Henry.

Richard IngramsFebruary 2000

Foreword

1. Pink Stockings 1988

Medium: ink on acrylic 51 x 38 cms 201⁄8 x 15 insAtelier no. A0388

Edward with his father John Piper (1903-1992) in 1981

Edward Piper’s main interest was in girls, and for most of his life he made paintings of girls that were as celebratory as they were frankly sexual. The pictures are not portraits, although each model has her own individuality. The models that twist and display in a riot of flowers and patterned garments are studied not as objects of sexual arousal but with the same appreciation that an exotic flower might be studied. In the models, transient moods of sensual enjoyment are lovingly depicted. The later landscapes also sparkle with a joyful and sensual spontaneity. They strike an optimistic note. Looking at a painting by Edward Piper is invariably cheering and invigorating.

He who bends to himself a joyDoth the wingèd life destroyBut he who kisses the joy as it fliesLives in Eternity’s sunrise.

William Blake (1757–1827) Gnomic Verses

BLAkE’S VErSE perfectly expresses the buoyant spirit of Edward Piper’s art. Capturing the fleeting moment – ‘the joy as it flies’ – was essential to all his work. Piper’s response to his chosen subject-matter was instinctive, from the heart and not the head, and he required his painting to have a fresh, unforced look, a sense of happy arrival. He understood the capacity of art to freeze intense moments of time, and wanted his work to reflect that transitory intensity, that sensual delight in the look of the world – a world peopled by beautiful girls. The Eternal Feminine became his core subject.

2. Grecian Urn 1989

ink & acrylic 53 x 71 cms 207⁄8 x 28 insAtelier no. A0003

3. Stephanie with Turquoise Vase 1990

ink on acrylic 56 x 77 cms 22 x 303⁄8 ins Atelier no. A0005

Edward and Prue, 1968

Edward in the jeep, Crouch End, 1959

the studios, and he spent his time wandering around London searching for material. “I used to go to a second hand barrow next to kings Cross Station and buy obscure French magazines called Folies de Paris which had airbrushed pubic hair but were pretty good for all that – they had a kind of continental guts which English calendars didn’t have. A bit later I went to strip clubs – it never produced much in the way of results but I was stocking up on visual reactions. Nobody believes you go to strip clubs to see how the light – red light on one side and green light on the other – on a pathetic little primitive stage has an absolutely devastating effect on a figure – it’s extraordinary to see the different colours either side.”12

In his wanderings around London he was observing and collecting ideas for paintings. “There was nothing I enjoyed more than watching the tarts parading like alley cats in shady side streets or lingering to admire posters of the half-naked film stars of X-rated films, or even the glances I caught of barmaids through pub windows.”13

17. Collage for Kelpra print Girl with red Dress Decoupage 53 x 68 cms 207⁄8 x 263⁄4 ins Atelier no. E359

18. Nude back against Sky oil on canvas 121 x 91 cms 475⁄8 x 357⁄8 ins Atelier no. E352

19. Suspender Belt oil on canvas 61 x 51 cms 24 x 201⁄8 ins Atelier no. E392