Brian Sewell first became acquainted with Eliot Hodgkin, cousin of the artist Howard Hodgkin, around the time he also befriended Joseph McCrindle. Shortly thereafter, Sewell introduced McCrindle to the painter, which resulted in McCrindle’s purchase of this highly detailed still life of a humble bundle of asparagus. In a letter to the scholar and collector Brinsley Ford, Hodgkin described his objective in producing such exquisitely painted still lifes as an attempt “to show the beauty of things that no one looks at twice.” Although trained at the Byam Shaw School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools, Hodgkin was born into wealth and painted for pleasure, not for a living. In 1982, his health and eyesight failing, he quit making art altogether. The dispersal of his studio the following year was organized by his good friend Sewell, who described the task as “the saddest work that I have ever done.” Gallery label for A Decade of Gifts and Acquisitions (Yale Center for British Art, 2017-06-01 - 2017-08-13)
