Katherine Church

June Evening in Buckinghamshire

Watercolour 320x520mm

Private Collection

Katharine “Kitty” Duff Church was a British neo-romantic painter. She was born in Highgate in north London, the daughter of barrister Harold Church, who was killed in World War I whilst serving as a Captain in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry.

She studied art at the Brighton School of Art, at the Royal Academy Schools between 1930 and 1933, and then at the Slade School of Fine Art in 1933 and 1934. During the early phase of her career, she exhibited regularly with the Royal Academy. In 1933, she had her first solo exhibition at the Wertheim Gallery in London. She exhibited with the New English Art Club and showed regularly with The London Group. From 1937 to 1947, she exhibited her work at the Lefevre Gallery. In 1954, she was invited to take part in the exhibition Figures in their Setting at the Tate Gallery. She was invited to exhibit at the National Museum of Wales in 1982. In 1988, a retrospective of her work was held at the Duncalfe Galleries in Harrogate.

June Evening in Buckinghamshire was painted in 1945 and demonstrates Church’s use of strong gestural lines, reminiscent of Monet’s dashes and daubs that create compositional movement and energy.