CYRIL MOUNT
1920 - 2013
MOUNT WITH OTHER ARMY OFFICERS AT RUWEISAT RIDGE
BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN - OCTOBER 1942
In 1937, aged sixteen, Cyril Mount joined the Royal Horse Artillery in India. Following the outbreak of war his Regiment mechanised and in March 1941 left for the Middle East and North Africa. He spent the early war years in action as a Wireless Operator, as well as drawing panoramas of enemy positions and other things. In North Africa he fought with the 4th Indian Division in all campaigns to Tunis. In July 1943 he was involved in the invasion of Sicily and later wounded and evacuated back to Tunisia. Following convalescence he was recommended for commission. He successfully completed six months officer cadet training in Almaza, Cairo and left in April 1944 as a full Lieutenant, returning to the UK.
During the war he had made many drawings and gouache paintings in lulls between fighting. Thirty nine of these are now in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum. After the war he became an art student and then went on to teach, mainly in Higher Education, for the next thirty four years, becoming a Principal Lecturer and a FRSA (Fellow of the Royal Society of Artists) making time to paint within teaching and ‘duties’.
As a student in Liverpool Mount was attracted to painters such as Breugel, Goya, Hogarth, Daumier, and Picasso and they still have a place in his oeuvre after much more than half a century. Not surprising then that his work had mostly been concerned with people. His painting became gradually more political and even his most innocent pictures of bathers can have as much hidden cynicism as his more overt blasts against the hypocrisy, cruelty and injustice of the ‘systems’ in the present world. He was greatly affected by Goya’s Disasters of War drawings which have fed into his art of the past decade or so. Mount has done his share of exhibiting, but has never been concerned about engaging with the ‘Fame and Fortune‘ aspects of the art game. His last exhibition of any significance was a Retrospective of sixty paintings in Worthing Museum & Art Gallery in 1992. Painting in excellent condition. White lines to images are reflections in the glazing & not damage. Smart crisp mount. Frame generally in good condition with some rubbing/paint loss to edges.APPROX FRAME SIZE: 39 CM X 34 CM
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO ASK.
PLEASE VIEW OUR OTHER LISTINGS, WHICH INCLUDE WORK BY TERRY FROST, HENRY MOORE & SONIA DELAUNAY.
PAYMENT BY BANK TRANSFER OR PAYPAL PLEASE.
UK ONLY: SHIPPED FRAMED & GLAZED.
INTERNATIONAL: SHIPPED UNFRAMED, REMOVED FROM MOUNT & PACKED ROLLED IN ACID FREE TISSUE, WITHIN A REINFORCED MAILING TUBE.