Morgan O'Driscoll Irish & International Art Auction 30th April 2018 at 6pm

56 Camille Souter HRHA (b. ) JApAnese CoMposiTion ii (1956) signed and dated ‘56 lower centre gouache and watercolour on Japanese tissue 37.25 x 49.5cm (14.67 x 19.49in) Provenance: Collection of Sir Basil Goulding; His Estate Sale; Taylor Galleries, Dublin, 1982; Private Collection; Literature: Camille Souter - The Mirror and the Sea by Garret Cormican, catalogue no.28, page 216 (illustrated page 218). Brought up in Glenageary, as Betty Pamela Holmes, Camille Souter went to London to study nursing at Guys Hospital and, while there, was diagnosed with TB. That could have been disastrous but she was never gravely ill, she said, and a year’s recuperation, mainly spent reading, changed her life. Back in London and working as a private nurse, she absorbed the cultural buzz of Soho and started to paint. Klee and Miro were important to her, as were Pollock and Franz Kline, who showed you could make art with anything. All those influences are apparent here in the spontaneity, the audacious use of line and judicious choice of colour of this playful but accomplished composition. €4,000-6,000 (£3,478-5,217)