Charles Mahoney (1903-1968):
Children's tales - sketch for school corridor, circa 1950
Framed (ref: 92)
Inscribed with title on label to reverse
Oil on paper, 20 x 30 in. (50.8 x 76.2 cm.)
See all works by Charles Mahoney oil allegory children illustration Surrealists
Provenance: the artist's estate
The label on the reverse suggests that this oil sketch was a proposal
for a mural. Elizabeth Bulkeley, the artist's daughter, remarks, 'This
painting is similar to others in which a scene is framed by a window and
seen through the eyes of a child (e.g. the Tate's painting of Adam and
Eve). The small girl, who looks much as I did at that time, observes a
world of Fairy Tales. All were favourite stories that my father loved to
read to me; Beauty and the Beast, the Witch beside her gingerbread
house from Hansel and Gretel, Jack with the fallen Giant wreathed in the
Beanstalk, and the Tale of the Very Fat Man, the Very Tall Thin Man,
and the Very Short Man.'