Vincent Bennett, Submariner with Mermaid, 1970s, Oil on Canvas Board

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Vincent Bennett
(1910 – 1993 Plymouth)
“Submariner with mermaid”, c.1970s
Oil on canvas board
Proxy signed and titled on label … Read more Vincent Bennett
(1910 – 1993 Plymouth)
“Submariner with mermaid”, c.1970s
Oil on canvas board
Proxy signed and titled on label verso
720 × 560 mm | 28 1/4 × 22 in
Unframed

One of the best paintings I have seen by great Plymouth painter Vincent Bennett. The paint surface is full of life and interest and the posture and expressions of the two subjects are conveyed with great humanity and humour.

Characteristically signed on the reverse by the artist’s wife Mary on his behalf. (Vincent rarely signed his work, just as he almost never exhibited or sold a picture during his lifetime).
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Vincent Bennett trained at Plymouth School of Art in the 1920s alongside Cecil Collins, and moved to London in 1930 where he worked as a scenery painter, supplementing his income with drawings published in magazines, and occasional boxing matches(!) In 1932 he returned to Plymouth and established himself as a jazz drummer, appearing regularly at local venues with various groups. He also began painting murals around the city. In 1945 he married Mary Hemingway who actively encouraged and facilitated his artistic career.

Their son Jonathan was born in 1950, by which time Bennett had settled to a more conventional career as an art teacher. He maintained he learnt more from the children than they did from him. He retired in 1975, happily devoting himself full time to painting until ill health intervened. A muted palette and naturalistic forms dominate his early easel painting. Later, as the techniques he used as a scenic painter encroached upon the academic concerns of his formal training, his own very distinctive style emerged, often involving a highly textured surface rendered in vivid hues that reflected his eclectic mix of influences, from Byzantine art to silent cinema. Whether he tackled grand narratives or studies of pub locals, his work is always charged with a dry wit. This piece has an attribution mark,
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