Code:P334

Oil on canvas painting by Margaret Neve who was born in 1929.

The painting is housed in a wooden frame which in turn is housed in a wooden cover. We can only presume there was a cover to the front as we do not have it.

Provenance shows that this painting was purchased from the Society for Education in Art Exhibition in 1960.

To the verso is a green label showing F2221 which is the paintings accession number. Further, a brown label reads Buxton Museum, Buxton being a small town in Derbyshire.

Also to the verso is a typed label containing the following:

‘Derbyshire Education Committee
MUSEUM SERVICE
TITLE: Town at Night
ARTIST: Margaret Neve
SCHOOL: Modern British

Aprrox measurements inc frame: H:70cm W:85cm D:3.5cm

Condition – Scuffs and marks to frame. Painting is in good condition.

BIOGRAPHY:

Her work is inspired by her experiences of Wales where she lived with her young family in the
1950s and 60s, and where she continues to visit on a regualar basis. Here she found peace and
solitude high on the slopes of the Aran Mountains. “I was completely free in my mind. We lived
very, very simply. And one got this extraordinary feeling of nature, through the twenty-four hours
of each day and through the seasons of the year, with the movement of the sun and moon and
the stars. A truly elemental feeling.”

Neve’s style combines a strongly articulated structure, a distinctive vocabulary of non-naturalistic
forms, and a jewelled, carefully worked surface of brilliant colours. Inspired by Byzantine Bible
covers, she has developed a technique of dots that are painstakingly and evenly applied across
the entire picture surface. This microscopic application of pure pigment gives her enormous
control and allows her to continually rework the surface. The dramatic effects of light created by
the build up of colour, combined with her often religious subject matter produces deeply passion-
ate and emotive landscapes.

Now in her late seventies, Margaret Neve has worked as a painter for over 50 years, and has
been widely collected and exhibited in the UK and America. A richly illustrated monograph with
accompanying text by Sister Wendy Beckett was published in 1998. She lives in north London
with her husband and continues to paint her symbolic landscapes.