Vincent Lines RWS (1909 –1968)

Signed and dated, 1941

In 1928, Vincent Lines was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, whose principal, William Rothenstein described him as ‘one of the best students of the painting school’. While only in his twenties, he was appointed principal of Horsham School of Art and later became principal of Hasting School of Art.

Lines was a prolific and talented topographical watercolourist, with an intimate knowledge of the countryside, which he recorded on the spot, in the open air. He was thus a logical choice for the Recording Britain project, to which he contributed twenty watercolours. He was a close friend of Thomas Hennell and the pair often painted together in the countryside around Hennell’s home at Ridley, near Meopham in Kent.

The gypsy family affectionately depicted here are almost certainly camped in one of the hop-picking areas of Kent, during the autumn of 1941, a harvest that Hennell had been commissioned to record by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee.

Lines survived the war and went on to become Vice-president of the Royal Watercolour Society.

Watercolour in original limed oak frame, signed and dated, with signed label verso.

Exhibited at Somerset Museum of Rural Life, Autumn 1999

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