I spent much of the evening in Chris Dyson’s lovely, small gallery, ELEVEN SPITALFIELDS, a Huguenot weaver’s house in Princelet Street, with his architectural practice at the back and a display of Anthony Eyton’s recent drawing in the rooms at the front. Chris had asked Anthony to draw Hawksmoor’s churches, which he’s done with astonishing vigour and enthusiasm. He first visited Spitalfields in 1947 and took a studio in Hanbury Street in 1962, so his love and knowledge of the area and its churches antedates the gentrification of the surrounding streets. He was encouraged to paint and draw in his youth by Augustus John and represents an old tradition of endless careful, but now in old age, freer observational drawing, which is wholly admirable.
Morning Charles, just to let you know that I have organised two walking tours of Spitalfields for the Friends (13 & 26 Nov) on which we will be visiting Anthony’s exhibition. Sue