Largest Ever Isherwood Collection

We are absolutely thrilled to have been asked by the family of Isherwood’s late partner, Pat White, to handle the sale of their collection of over 100 paintings by the late Wigan artist.

Pat’s influence on Lawrence’s life was profound having met following an exhibition in Hoylake in 1975.  Following the purchase of a painting at the exhibition, Pat discovered that the painting was unsigned so a

rranged to meet Isherwood at the Scarisbrick Hotel to arrange for him to sign the painting.  The meeting led to a four year relationship and Isherwood himself stated, ‘she came to the exhibition to buy a painting and she finished up with the artist’.

Pat was a wealthy widow who owned a home in Malta so for this period of his life, he was able to travel across Europe which influenced both the colour palette and subject matter of his works during this time too.  This also marked a period when Isherwood was also able to paint on canvas rather than his usual hardboard as Pat would buy him superior materials to those which he was used to.  She even bought him sixty canvases for his sixtieth birthday and Christmas gifts from her children would also often be art materials and canvas.

Pat’s collection of Isherwood paintings was truly unique, both for it’s provenance given her immediate proximity to the artist along with it’s variety with regards to both period and subject matter.  The exhibition includes incredibly rare early works dating back to as early as 1951, to later works executed in the late 1970s during their travels to Europe and particularly Malta.  Although these works have never been available to purchase before, many of the works were photographed and illustrated in Stephen Eckersley’s Isherwood book which offers further insight into their relationship and her influence on his work.

The exhibition allows a rare opportunity to view and purchase from a truly unique personal collection intimately connected to the artist.  The works will be available to view in our Heskin gallery from Sunday 10th May and our Wilmslow gallery from Saturday 16th May.  Remaining works will subesequently go online week commencing 18th May.

Do not miss the opportunity to view this unrivalled collection of paintings by the highly sought after Wigan artist who was also collected by the likes of L S Lowry.