Miles Richmond

Miles Richmond

In the mid-1990s Miles Richmond travelled by camper van throughout North Yorkshire,

painting views of Richmond outdoors and in all weathers. Were it not for his remarkable

physical stamina, he might have followed in the unfortunate footsteps of his hero Paul

Cézanne.2 But Richmond was determined to keep painting until he achieved a view of

this valley town that expressed his unique approach to the landscape: one that ‘collapses

perspective and intermingles foreground and background’3 by both seeing through and

capturing the veil of natural phenomena.

It’s an interesting part of England, because this part of Yorkshire is divided… One of

the first things William the Conqueror did was build a series of castles… [Richmond]

castle sticks up like a sore thumb in the middle of this rather peaceful landscape… it

goes on puzzling me, how exactly this castle hangs to that rock… It’s a mystery, but

it’s only another example of the mystery of how anything appears. We think oh, the

material world is a solid fact, but [it] is just the solid rigidity of our own heads.4

By 1954 however, Bomberg was actually in Spain. The departure of his Borough

students, and the appointment of a new director at the Slade had finished his

teaching hopes in London. He had even considered moving to the United States,

but his Communist past made this impossible. While he disliked going to the

same place twice (he first came to Ronda in the early 1930s), his wife Lilian

wanted to live in Ronda, because its beauty, climate, and relative affordability

made it an ideal place where they might finally enjoy retirement. Bomberg

agreed, but he had quite different plans: he wanted to open an art school with

his former Borough students, and he specifically wanted Richmond to assist

him. When Bomberg found out that Richmond and Susanna were in southern

Spain, he set out to find them, eventually locating them in Nerja.

Bomberg persuaded us to move to Ronda, he thought it was a more

inspiring place, he thought I could do better close to him…So I joined

Bomberg briefly, but then Susanna was pregnant, I returned to the south

coast and our first child was born in Málaga and shortly afterwards… we

moved up to Ronda and Bomberg found us a house next to his… it was

pretty primitive, just one room… no water, no light, no toilet. It was just a

room with a view.67

We bought mats and covered the holes in the floor… and there was a well

or a spring where we got water… We brought up a small child there…

Georgina… Bomberg came to her first birthday party… I saw him pretty

well every day and certainly spent hours talking with him.68

The Tajo, Ronda

Susanna’s mother, Elsa Richmond, Georgina, Susanna (with James), and Richmond, Ronda, 1959

9. Ronda from the Moorish Baths, Evening, 1959oil on canvas65 x 75 cms 255⁄8 x 291⁄2 ins

17. Rocks near Montejaque I, 1964oil on canvas62 x 76 cms 243⁄8 x 297⁄8 ins

38. Ronda from Below, 1977watercolour70 x 100 cms 27 1⁄2 x 393⁄8 ins