Sylvia Warman, Gold Tulips and Stocks

A handwritten label on the back gives the title ‘Gold Tulips & Stocks’, the name Sylvia Warman and an address in Caversham, Reading. Title, name and address in that order is the usual form of an artist’s entry label for a local art society show, so she was very probably the painter. We have found no exhibition, sale or press record under her name.

Red and gold tulips, white blooms and spires of pink and purple stocks crowd a green pottery vase on a dark table. A small posy of pink flowers in a dark jar sits to the right. The paint is thick and quick, and the warm brown ground sets off the reds.

Oil, apparently on board, unsigned on the front. Handwritten label on the reverse with the title and name. In a limed wood frame with gilt edges, rubbed along the lower edge.