• In ‘The Art of Richard Eurich’ Andrew Lambirth wrote of Eurich that “His later nudes, whether in bathroom or on beach, are moving testament to his profound humanism.” In many ways they can be compared to Pierre Bonnard’s series of beautiful and deeply touching ‘Intimiste’ paintings of his wife Marthe, in the bathroom or at her dressing table, depicted tenderly in off-guarded moments. But so often with Eurich there is an irrepressible quirkiness, a sense of mischief and of gentle humour. Indeed as Lambirth writes elsewhere: “There is always more to Eurich’s work than at first meets the eye.”

  • In ‘The shower bath, c.1985’ the glimpse in the mirror of a man in a vest (but without underpants) hints...
    Richard Eurich, The shower bath, Circa 1985
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    In ‘The shower bath, c.1985’ the glimpse in the mirror of a man in a vest (but without underpants) hints at a casual domesticity and ordinary everyday-ness. The hard lines of the shower-bath cubicle contrast with the curves of the naked bodies, and there’s a pleasing, gentle tone of sexuality that stops delicately short of outright ‘sexiness’.

  • By comparison his earlier, much smaller, shower-bath painting from 1951-52 has an overt sexuality that recalls the Orientalist paintings of...
    Richard Eurich, The shower bath, 1951-52  (Not for sale. Private Collection, UK)

    By comparison his earlier, much smaller, shower-bath painting from 1951-52 has an overt sexuality that recalls the Orientalist paintings of Jean-Léon Gerome, with the two naked women, one standing in the shower fully revealed and wearing a necklace that gives a faintly exotic touch to proceedings.

  • In Eurich’s 1985 painting ‘The Girl’, he approaches the subject in an apparently more dispassionate manner. Peyton Skipwith writes of...
    Richard Eurich, The Girl, 1987
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    In Eurich’s 1985 painting ‘The Girl’, he approaches the subject in an apparently more dispassionate manner. Peyton Skipwith writes of it in the catalogue to the 2003 exhibition ‘Richard Eurich 1903-1992, Visionary Artist’, in which the painting was shown: “(The Girl) is rooted in a moment of starkly, and rather shockingly direct, observation. … There is no curiosity, no sense of voyeurism, just a record of a fleeting vision.” Eurich’s gaze is acute but benign, presenting with gentle irony a very English Venus, born of the sea, treading hesitantly on a shingle beach as clouds gather around the sailing boat and the dredger on the horizon.

     

    The above paintings come from the Estate of Richard Eurich, who have recently launched their Catalogue Raisonne online - https://richardeurich.co.uk