A monumental 121 cm photographic study made inside the Royal Academician's remarkable working space, numbered 2/30 and preserving an evocative interior with an earlier association to William Orpen.
Bibliographic Details
Author: Chris Simpson (British photographer, b. 1952).
Title: Hidden Gems.
Subject: The London studio and home of Ken Howard RA (1932–2022).
Date: Early 21st century, photographed during the first decade of the 2000s.
Medium: Limited edition giclée print from an original photograph.
Edition: Numbered 2/30.
Signature: Signed, titled and numbered in the lower margin: "2/30 / Hidden Gems / Chris Simpson".
Presentation: Loose and unframed.
Size: Approximately 121 × 71 cm including the wide white margins.
Condition
Near Fine condition. A couple of light handling marks to the generous white margins. The reverse shows faint residue from previous mounting tape together with a few scattered minor blemishes and marks. The photographic image itself presents extremely well. Please examine the gallery images carefully or request a more detailed condition report. The print will be dispatched very carefully rolled in a wide, rigid mailing tube.
Description
A striking large-format photographic work by Chris Simpson, taken during a private visit to the London studio and home of distinguished British painter and Royal Academician Ken Howard. Measuring an impressive 121 cm across, Hidden Gems records not merely an interior but an artist's working environment: a deeply personal space filled with the objects, paintings and accumulated visual material that surrounded Howard during the creative process.
The photograph is especially evocative because the studio carried its own artistic history. Before Ken Howard occupied it, the space had been associated with the celebrated Anglo-Irish painter William Orpen, who worked there during the earlier twentieth century. The image therefore captures a studio linked with two significant figures in British art, preserving the layered atmosphere of a place in which successive generations of artists lived and worked.
Simpson's composition draws the viewer into the room through a carefully balanced arrangement of pictures, furniture, studio objects and incidental detail. Rather than presenting a formal portrait of the artist, the photograph creates an intimate portrait through his surroundings, allowing the studio itself to become the subject.
This example is especially desirable as the very low-numbered 2/30 from the stated edition and is fully signed, titled and numbered by the photographer. We understand that the edition may in practice have been produced in considerably smaller numbers, although this cannot presently be confirmed.
Its exceptional scale gives the work considerable presence, while the combination of contemporary photography, Royal Academy interest and the historic association of the studio gives it appeal well beyond conventional architectural or interior photography.
Notes
An atmospheric photographic record of a significant British artist's private working environment, enhanced by its connection with William Orpen and its very low edition number. Particularly appealing to collectors of contemporary photography, Ken Howard, British painting and artists' studios.