Angels and Demons: Introducing the Remarkable Christopher Row
15 November ’Äì 21 December 2008

Christopher Row died in 2006 leaving a large collection of exceptionally powerful drawings, watercolours and oil paintings, most of which had never been seen even by his family. Sladers Yard is delighted now to present a selection of this visionary artist’Äôs most expressive works, most of which are available for the first time.

Christopher Row’Äôs great passion was for imaginative drawing. His figures interact passionately with one another and seem to describe the human condition with compelling immediacy. Like Greek myths they set out situations and personalities and yet they are always enigmatic and open to interpretation.

He liked most of all to draw with ink and a quill which he could cut to the shape he wanted. He was experimental and knowledgeable about the technical side of painting, boiling oils and mixing his own pigments to create the consistency he wanted. He enjoyed the physical processes of painting.

Christopher Row was born in 1922 in Devon. His father, who came from a long line of tea traders going back to the earliest days of the East India Company, survived the First World War but died suddenly leaving his wife, Elizabeth, pregnant with Christopher, their third child. With very little to support her family, she moved to a small cottage in Newton Ferrers. There she met the three la Trobe sisters, who took in the children while she went to work as a nurse finally becoming a locally celebrated midwife. The youngest la Trobe sister was a talented artist and she and Christopher would spend hours drawing in her studio. On holidays from school, the children stayed with the la Trobes, only occasionally visiting their hard-working mother. Boarding at West Buckland School on Exmoor was a happy time as Christopher allowed freedom to roam and keep birds and draw.

In 1940, after a few months at Plymouth Art School, Christopher enlisted with the Hampshire Regiment and was sent to India where he loved to draw the jungle. Sadly those drawings were lost. At the end of the war, he did a Foundation Year at Goldsmiths under Clive Gardiner (Vanessa Gardiner’Äôs grandfather), where he studied etching as well as drawing and painting. He did not find it easy to be taught and left to work on his own.

In 1949 he married Mavis Freer who had also been at Goldsmiths. For many years Christopher taught art in East London schools which he enjoyed, also studying ceramics in order to teach at a comprehensive in Deptford. At the age of 61, their son John found them a cottage at Picket Hill in the New Forest belonging to the biographer Philip Ziegler. There he and Mavis were able to have studios and work quietly for twelve years. Only when the Zieglers decided to sell the cottages did they move to Edmonsham in Dorset, a quiet and beautiful village belonging to the Medlicott Estate.

A passionate and private artist, Christopher Row did not paint for money. Troubled throughout his life by a version of Churchill’Äôs black dog, Christopher was able to express his demons through his art. Although he never felt ready to exhibit, he knew his work was good. When he was dying, he asked his wife what she would do with his work. With the help of their friend Tim Nicholson, this exhibition is the beginning of her answer. Christopher Row’Äôs vision and talent are at last ready to be discovered and celebrated.

Petter Southall's showroom with Philosophy - Julian Bailey, Derek Nice and Petter Southall - West Bay - Beatitudes featuring Cheryl Campbell - Miranda Creswell's paintings and drawings - West Bay - Beatitudes by David Inshaw - Alfred Stockham, Miranda Creswell and Petter Southall - Out to Sea - Bailey Nice and Southall - The Need to Dream - Vanessa Gardiner - Tim Nicholson - Sladers Yard Christmas Show - Robin Rae - Petter Bjorn Southall - A New Lease of Life - Angels and Demons Christopher Row