Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are offering for sale this wonderful, character study Oil on Canvas by the artist P. A. Bill, who has signed the portrait in the lower left hand corner and inscribed it in the lower right 77 London. The painting depicts a bespectacled elderly man, with a kindly, avuncular face, playing a hexagonal concertina or, as it is often known, a squeeze box. He is wearing a brown three piece suit, a rust coloured shirt and has a black bowler hat on top of his white hair. The characterisation is excellent.

A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front.

P. A. Bill certainly was living in London in the 1970s, as we have found four oil character studies inscribed London and all dated in the 70s. Apart from these, we found a portrait dated 1965, a portrait of a boy with a cat, a still life and a copy of a Titian by this artist. He is listed on a couple of auction sites as Peter A. Bill, and by one as Peter A. Bill 1937-2014, born in Wolverhampton who lived in Hampstead, but we have been able to verify this as yet. The latter site also said that he belonged to the set around Christine Keller and the Profumo affair and that little of his work is on the market as he sold most of it to the group, but we can find no record that a Peter Bill was involved in this group of people. Our research continues. We have been informed that P. A. Bill is male and that he was living in Fulham in 1974, so he possibly was Peter A..

The painting is framed is what is probably its original ornate swept frame. It will be supplied with new brass hangers, new brass picture wire and will be ready to hang.

Image size: 73cm x 62.75cm size: 23 3/8 x 19 3/8 inches - 59.4cm x 49.25cm

Frame size: 28 3/4 x 24 3/4 inches -

Medium: Oils on unmarked canvas

Condition: Excellent, both painting and frame.