Edward Piper Watercolour & Ink Female Figure, Signed & Dated IV 86

An original watercolour and ink on paper by Edward Piper (1938–1990), signed lower right "Edward Piper" and dated "IV 86" — April 1986. The composition centers on a female figure rendered in the artist's mature gestural manner: confident black ink line establishes the head, arms, and drapery, while washes of vivid teal, red, and warm yellow flood the sheet in loose, luminous fields. The subject reclines with one arm raised behind the head, the face carried by economical line and a few touches of pink and ochre. Presented in a gilt wood frame, triple matted, and glazed.

Piper, eldest son of the celebrated British artist John Piper, trained at the Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, and the Slade School of Art. He worked in a Pop idiom of flat, bright colour through the 1960s before moving toward watercolour, studying Matisse and the French figurative tradition closely, and returning again and again to the female form. This 1986 sheet sits squarely in that late watercolour period — line and colour working in tandem — produced four years before his death at fifty-one. The bold palette reads especially well against New Mexico interiors.

The female figure was Edward Piper's central and most sustained subject, a motif he explored across decades and media. His later watercolours pair fluid Matisse-informed line with saturated washes, a synthesis fully realized in works of this April 1986 group. The precise dating and clear signature place this sheet firmly within that concentrated final phase of his output.

CONDITION

Very Good. Strong colour retention with no visible fading; ink line remains crisp and the washes bright. Frame shows scuffing consistent with handling..

DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS

• Overall (framed): 28 1/4" H × 23 1/4" W × 5/8" D
• Visible image: 19 3/4" H × 14 3/4" W
• Medium: Watercolour and ink on paper
• Signed & dated: "Edward Piper / IV 86" lower right
• Presentation: Gilt wood frame, triple mat, glazed