Provenance:
Ex Collection of Art Patron, Lady Charlotte Bonham-Carter. Originally purchased from Lefevre Gallery November 1933 Exhibition Catalogue No. 11. Ex Collection Sir Ivor & Lady Richardson, purchased from Gillian Jason Gallery, London 11 October, 1991. Private Collection, Wellington, purchased from Sir Ivor & Lady Richardson Art Collection, Dunbar Sloane, 22 March 2006

Reference:
p. 100 Arthur Howell Frances Hodgkins: Four Vital Years Salisbury Square, London 1951 Acquisition: Gillian Jason Gallery, London 11/10/91

Frances Hodgkins was a widely travelled artist. In the winter of 1932-33 at 63 years old, she visited Ibiza. Her reputation as an international artist was of course well-established by this time and the year before, she had established relationships with two prominent dealer galleries in London where she was living and painting on a full-time basis.

Staying at the Hotel Balear, Ibiza with a view of the sea, the brightness of Mediterranean light was magnified. The flowering cactus, which is the subject of this work, exudes a raw, slow heat which seems to bleed out, modulating the spines of the plant. The directness of the gouache medium allows for the relationship between artist and colour to be translated directly to the viewer.

This period of time in the Balearic Islands was more than an artistic reprieve for Hodgkins. The dry, bright essentialism of the Mediterranean instilled new perspective into her work, having effected a dramatic change in environment. Hodgkins revisited certain themes from her earlier work with a fresh intensity, creating works which hint towards abstraction of form, and of such excellence that many consider the gouaches from this time to be amongst her finest work.