Month: February 2024

Cyril and Renske Mann. Part 4.

The great portrait artist and his beautiful muse and model

“…When I first got undressed to pose for him, he looked me up and down with a critical eye. ‘ Perfect breasts. Not too big, not too small. You can thank your Indonesian forebears for those’. We’d known each other for about a month, and already we were perfectly at ease with each other, as if we’d known each other all our lives…”

Renske Mann from her book, The Girl in the Green Jumper

Renske was overjoyed by Cyril’s words. Although she didn’t believe his words were utterances of flattery and just simple facts, nevertheless the words made her happy and made her love him even more.

Cyril Mann (1960). Photograph by Edward Hutton.

Throughout his career Cyril painted many portraits, self-portraits and in the 1960s Cyril Mann completed a number of nude depictions using Renske as his model. 

Ecstasy by Cyril Mann (1963)

One such nude portrait, using her as a model, was completed in 1963 and entitled Ecstasy.  Renske remembers the morning he began this work. In her book, The Girl in the Green Jumper, she describes the setting:

“…Cyril mostly painted in the morning.  The minute he drew the curtains he knew when the weather was set to last.  As the sun rose, it cast shadows from the Crittall windows [steel framed windows] across my nude body on our single bed.  He stared at me, grunting and squinting ‘Stay put and take a comfortable pose’ he ordered.  I knew by then that there was no such thing: every pose would turn into agony in time…”

It was not just about her body or pose it was also about the sunlight streaming through the window. It was of the utmost importance to Cyril to capture the dynamic effects of the rays of the sun as they bounced off every surface, from walls on to Renske’s body and back.  He was like a man possessed.  Tables and chairs had to be moved out to make a working space.  He would shuffle around the tight spaces never lifting the gaze from Renske’s body.  She moved to get comfortable on the bed and started to doze off only to be woken abruptly by Cyril who rudely told her “not to go fucking asleep”.  Throughout painting Renske said he would not stop talking, all the while explaining what he was doing.  He was adamant that he had to block in the light areas first as they were more important, not the mid-tones or darks.  Cyril compared Renske to the RA models he had once used saying:

“…Models at the RA haven’t a clue.  They just sit on a chair.  Students have to group around a podium.  If you are in the wrong spot, you’re fucked.  At least you know how to make your body look interesting…”

Cyril had been introduced to the famous English television personality, Denis Norden, who on seeing the painting told Cyril that he should give it the title Ecstasy. Cyril and Renske had hoped that Norden would buy the painting but he didn’t but their mutual friend, Peter Davis, who had introduced Denis Norden to them suggested they just give Norden the painting for nothing as the celebrity owning one of Cyril’s paintings would be added kudos. However Cyril was appalled by the suggestion and simply said ‘to hell with that’.

Modern Venus (c.1963)

One morning Cyril Mann came into the bedroom where is wife, naked, had just risen from bed.. He flings back the curtains and the sunlight streams in, illuminating her. He screamed at her not to move and at the same time drags into the room a large canvas and starts to paint her portrait.  She remembers that her shadow was cast against the wall as she rose from the vey messy jumble of bedclothes strewn on the bed. She is standing facing him with her left arm above her head which in that posture soon becomes numb. She balanced by standing one foot in front. Their blue alarm clock on their round bedside table glistens in the sun. He told her that she was a Modern Venus. Not rising from a seashell but from the sheets and blankets. The painting Modern Venus is complete.

Reclining Nude in Sunlight by Cyril Mann (1962)

In Reclining Nude in Sunlight, Cyril Mann omits detail as he just wants to depict and render light as a dynamic force. He used large hog’s-hair paintbrushes so that he could rapidly cover the canvas, and so focus on the light and how the sunlight fell and reflected on Renske’s nude body as it swiftly crossed their room.

Golden Torso by Cyril Mann (1961)

Golden Torso was completed in 1961 and when the author and art critic John Berger saw it he immediately recommended it for the Granada TV Art Collection which was recognised as probably having the third best corporate collection in Britain. Unfortunately for Berger the painting had already been snapped up by another collector and Berger reluctantly chooses another picture for his sponsor.

Self portrait with Double Nude by Cyril Mann (1965)

Probably the best-known portraits Cyril completed of Renske was The Girl in the Green Jumper, one with her fully clothed.  His self-portrait can be seen in the background, hanging on the wall.

The Girl in the Green Jumper by Cyril Mann (1963)

In the painting, The Girl in the Green Jumper, we see Renske perched on the narrow wooden armrest of their red chair, which she recalled made sitting still very difficult and painful, much to Cyril’s annoyance. She said that posing for Cyril required a good deal of concentration and willpower. The depiction came about when Cyril was admiring the green of her jumper which he commented looked so much more intense, seen against the red upholstery of their newly-purchased G-Plan suite. Renske, like many, queried whether it is a portrait or a study of sunlight blazing on to her through the window, striking her face and bouncing all over the room. She commented to her husband that her hands were just fingerless smears of paint but he replied that that was true abstraction. Abstraction he said was “to leave out” and abstract art is not actually abstract at all and should be better termed as “non-figurative”.

Amanda Mann has followed in her father Cyril Mann’s footsteps and is now also a talented artist. Here Amanda is seen with the painting that inspired her mother Renske Mann’s memoir “The Girl In The Green Jumper: My life with Cyril Mann”.

Cyril Mann, besides the nude depictions of his wife and self-portraits, completed many portraits of his family and friends which highlight what, he as a talented portrait artist, could produce. There is no doubt that he could have been a wealthy portrait painter. Alas he only rarely painted portraits of people outside the family as he said he could not accept portraiture commissions where he was supposed to flatter his sitter, which he believed was often the prerequisite for being given the commission.

Portrait of Sylvia, aged 3, tearfully clutching her doll, by Cyril Mann (1943)

Sylvia, Cyril’s first daughter, would recount on a number of occasion the memory of sitting for her father for the portrait. She said the agony and boredom of sitting still for hours, clutching the doll still haunted her.

Portrait of Sylvia, by Cyril Mann (c.1957)                  Collection Gideon Dewhirst (Sylvia’s son and Cyril’s grandson)

Cyril Mann with his portrait of Sylvia Mann.

It is hard to judge the mood of the sitter. Sylvia was then aged seventeen and it was the time prior to her attending Keele University. It seems she is somewhat lost in her own thoughts. The depiction shows her holding a book, signifying her love of literature. After university she would go on to become a published author, poet and playwright. Sylvia died in 2006.

Amanda, aged 4, with Doll by Cyril Mann (1973)

Cyril and Renske’s four year old daughter, Amanda, was posed sitting on a chair holding her doll. It was a similar depiction to Cyril’s portrait of his first-born daughter, Sylvia, which he completed in 1943, also with a doll.

Portrait of David Hardisty by Cyril Mann (1966)

David Hardisty was a young lawyer working as a patent agent. He had seen and fell in love with one of Cyril’s floral paintings which were on display at the Rawinski Gallery in London. Hardisty, who had recently married, could not afford the £300 price tag. Not to be deterred he went to Bevin Court to ask Cyril if he could buy the painting in fifteen £20 instalments. Cyril agreed and during the following years David bought more of Cyril’s paintings. In the portrait, sunlight once again takes precedence over form in Cyril’s rendering. It plays across David’s features and on his suit, tie and hands. Time must have been at a premium for Cyril as the portrait was completed in only six two-hour sittings.

My Student, Vic Singh by Cyril Mann (1962)

When Renske went to the art class in December 1959 and met Cyril Mann for the frst time, one of his students that evening was Vic Singh. whom Renske remembered as being an extremely handsome young man,. His mother was Austrian and his father was an Indian politician. Singh went on to become a photographer. One day he called around to Bevin Court and Cyril persuaded him to pose for a portrait. He agreed and posed, one foot raised with his elbow resting across his knee while stretching one arm towards the bookcase in order to maintain his balance. He was exhausted by the time Cyril had completed the portrait.

Portrait of Ernest Groome (1971)

In 1960, Renske, like her husband, began to worry about the lack of sales of his paintings and suggested he took some of his work to Hyde Park Corner where many artists hung their work on the railings. Cyril was horrified with this idea saying that serious artists would not dream of hawking their wares in such a way. Renske, however, said that if he wouldn’t do it, she would. She arrived at Hyde Park Corner and found some spaces on the railings where she could hang Cyril’s artwork but she had forgotten to bring string or hooks to complete her task. She was rescued by a young Irishman, Ernest Groome, an aspiring young artist who had been working as a touring pub entertainer. He managed to find hooks and string and he and Renske hung Cyril’s paintings on the railings. 

Cyril first painted Ernest Groome’s portrait in 1961 shortly after the Hyde Park Corner meeting and ten years later completed another portrait of Groome. In this portrait Groome is in Renske and Cyril’s home. The red shade of the standard lamp picks up the colour of his shirt, casting a strong solid shadow against the wall behind him.

Self portrait by Cyril Mann

Cyril left behind many self-portraits which capture his many moods.

Self-Portrait with Hat by Cyril Mann (c.1968)

It is a very worried-looking Cyril Man who stares out at us in his 1968 Self-Portrait with Hat. He seems to have the cares of the world on his shoulders. It is 1968 and Renske is pregnant with her daughter Amanda, Renske, whose job was bringing financial stability to the household, was having to give up her job to have the baby. How were they going to cope? Could Cyril sell more of his work? All of these and many more questions were probably racing around Cyril’s head at the time of the self-portrait.

Self-Portrait with a Brush by Cyril Mann (1966)

The most controversial self-portrait came in 1978 under the title Ecce Homo. Ecce homo, meaning “behold the man” are, according to the Gospel of St John, the Latin words used by Pontius Pilate when he presented a scourged Jesus, bound and crowned with thorns, to a hostile crowd shortly before his Crucifixion. 

Ecce Homo by Cyril Mann (1978)

Ecce Homo was one of last self-portraits painted by Cyril Mann. He died a year later. His state of mind, at the time he painted his own portrait, was unstable but there was also a sense of defiance about this depiction. A sense that he was master of his own destiny. It is in a way a mirror of his great creative energy which throughout his life shone brightly and was never dimmed by his detractors.  Having given up smoking on doctor’s orders he had reverted to that habit and the portrait shows him defiantly holding a cigarette. It was another way of showing that he, and he alone, would make decisions about himself.  His rebellious posture and the title he gave the work was his way of reasoning that he, like Christ, had been persecuted and in a way crucified by art critics and gallery owners. He adamantly believed that the reason he never achieved the success he deserved during his life was due to others and not himself.   In the background, we see flanking him two earlier self-portraits and their positioning symbolises the thieves crucified on either side of Christ.

……. to be continued.

It would not have been possible for me to put together this and following blogs about the artist, Cyril Mann, without information gleaned from a number of sources:

The comprehensive biography of Cyril Mann, The Sun is God by John Russell Taylor

Renske Mann with her book The Girl in the Green Jumper, My life with the artist Cyril Mann

The intimate autobiography of Cyril Mann’s life by his second wife Renske, entitled The Girl in the Green Jumper.

Renske Mann and Natalie Ava Nasr, the lady playing the role of Renske in the play.

Peter Tate who plays Cyril Mann, Christian Holder, director of the play and Natalie Ava Nasr, who plays Renske in the play The Girl in the Green Jumper.

This autobiography has now been turned into a play which receives its World Premiere on Wednesday March 13th at the Playground Theatre, London, 8 Latimer Rd, London W10 6RQ. It runs until March 24th.

Finally, and most importantly I owe many thanks to Renske Mann herself who provided me with information and photographs appertaining to her late husband Cyril.

Piano Nobile Gallery London for information and pictures.

Cyril and Renske Mann. Part 3.

Love at first sight.

“…The very first moment I beheld him, my heart was irrevocably gone…”

– Jane Austen

Bread and Knife by Cyril Mann (c.1955)

Still Life of Bottle and Jug by Cyril Mann (c.1955)

In the mid-1950s Cyril Mann’s painting style changed and he entered what was known as his solid shadow period.  This was a complete change of style for him in comparison to his earlier works which had concentrated on the effects of direct sunlight and yet light came into play with these “shadow” works. They concentrated on shadows that were seen below objects when viewed under an overhead light source. In 2018 the Piano Nobile Gallery in London put on an exhibition of Cyril Mann’s work entitled The Solid Shadow Paintings.  The gallery wrote about the works on display:

“…Undertaken between 1951 and 1957, Mann’s solid shadow paintings were a dazzling interjection in the subdued art world of fifties Britain. This was his most original period and it stands as his lasting contribution to the history of twentieth-century painting.  It is an explosive programme of work, representing ordinary objects with boldly outlined shadows and bright, sometimes luminous colour. A dazzling interjection in the subdued art world of fifties Britain, these works have never been displayed together and the exhibition offers an exciting insight into the artist’s radiant formal language…”

After Mary walked out on Cyril in the middle of the night with her their daughter Sylvia, he had to fend for himself.  Fortunately for Cyril, his daughter maintained contact with him and visited him regularly.  Sylvia, who was a year younger than Renske, won a scholarship to the City of London School for Girls . After successfully completed her schooling she left London, aged eighteen, and went to Keele University to read English Literature and French.  Whilst there, Sylvia also took on some temping work to supplement her student grant.  Cyril was very proud of his daughter and what she had achieved although he had to admit they had, at times, a tempestuous relationship and he found her quite difficult at times.  On occasions, it would appear that Sylvia also found her relationship with her father equally problematic.  Renske got to know Sylvia and often said that she was everything she should have loved to have been herself: tall, a head taller than Cyril and Renske, blonde and beautiful. She also had Cyril’s violet-blue eyes and sensitive mouth and in some ways, Renske often felt pangs of jealousy.

Self portrait by Cyril Mann (1956)

Cyril struggled to survive financially as the sale of his paintings were not going well although this could have been more down to his obstinacy and the cantankerous ways he treated dealers and galleries, rather than the quality of his paintings. 

Ma, Just before she died by Cyril Mann

The years 1958 and 1959 proved to be a distressing time for Cyril Mann.  He had been suffering a great deal of pain and was seriously ill with stomach ulcers.  The discomfort had made him stop painting and teaching and the final straw to this misery was the death of his mother whom he had visited whilst she was in a Nottingham nursing home.  He had made a number of facial sketches of his mother in 1959 during her last days. She had outlived her husband, her daughter and two of her three sons.

Cyril and Renske

Things changed for Cyril at the end of 1959 when on the evening of December 18th Renske van Slooten came into his life.  Renske first met Cyril Mann at the Kingsway Day College in Holborn, London, where he was teaching students.  Her “boyfriend” and dancing partner at the time, who knew she was interested in art, took her to meet his former art teacher.  Renske remembers the moment well and, in her book, The Girl in the Green Jumper, she recalls that first sight of the artist:

“…As I stood on tiptoe peering through the window, I could see Cyril with his back to me, slumped at his desk in front of his students with their easels and drawing boards.  His hair, what there was of it was long and unkempt.  He wore a crumpled tweed jacket with leather elbow patches.  He wasn’t tall a bit over five foot at most.  To me, barely out of my teens and recently arrived from Holland, he looked old, at least fifty.  Yet before I’d even seen his face, I felt drawn to him…”

She also distinctly remembered the park warden’s prediction of meeting and marrying an “old” artist. At that first sighting of Cyril in his art class she was totally captivated by him.  Renske says of her first impression of Cyril:

“…A strange feeling came over me. This was it! I remembered the park warden’s prediction. I was mesmerised. I saw his hair was too long, his tweed jacket with leather elbow patches was tatty, he looked worn out, depressed. Didn’t take any notice of me.  I couldn’t care less what he looked like and how scruffy he was. I was attracted to him, not because he was older, but because I’m always attracted to people who are unusually gifted. And I sensed that he was…”

Cyril Mann painting in a small room in Bevin Court

After that first meeting, Cyril and Renske set up a date for the following evening. She was buoyed by the thought of being in the company of a professional artist.  Cyril was almost half an hour late at the rendezvous admitting he had fallen asleep whilst reading a book.  Fortunately for him Renske had waited patiently for him.  Cyril invited her back to his flat to look at some of his artwork.  At this time, he was renting a top-floor flat in a council housing block at Bevin Court in Islington.  Totally captivated by both Cyril and his painting, Renske admits she paid little attention to the flat itself, which was overflowing with his paintings, books and sculptures.  Renske remembers the artwork as being quite small, dark and gloomy and yet she says that they were among the most beautiful she had ever seen.  She told him that some reminded her of works by Turner.  He was delighted at that assertion as he looked upon the English artists as one of his great heroes.

St Paul’s from Bankside by Cyril Mann (c.1952)

One of the paintings which she really liked was his work entitled St Paul’s from Bankside.  It depicted the dome of St Paul’s looming above the rooftops from across the River Thames.  Nowadays at this point on the Thames, the Millenium Bridge spans the river besides the Tate Modern.  Renske said that at first glance at the work, she thought it was a monochrome depiction but on closer inspection she could see that the greys were shot through with blue, yellow and warm pink.  Cyril told her that the city should be viewed on a grey day. He went on to assert:

“…One day people will recognise my qualities as an artist purely on the strength of my ability to perceive greys in their infinite variety…”

It was this assertion that one day he would be acclaimed a great artist that would haunt him all his life as he never felt recognised as a truly great painter.

St Paul’s by Cyril Mann (1948)

It is interesting to compare the 1952 painting with the one he completed in 1948. The latter was painted in his favoured style at the time that of facing the sun and concentrating on the effect of direct sunlight. The view is from Moor Lane which dominates the foreground in which we see four people walking along the pavement, to the side of which is a low wall. A fifth figure crosses the road. Over the other side of the wall is a vast empty space, the result of heavy wartime bombings. In the midground we see multi storey buildings, churches and to the right, the familiar outline of St Paul’s Cathedral.

St Paul’s from Bevin Court by Cyril Mann (1961)

Another of Cyril Mann’s cityscapes featuring St Paul’s cathedral was his painting entitled St Paul’s from Bevin Court. 

A month had passed since their first meeting and Renske and Cyril were happy about how things were progressing.  Renske, however, was not happy with her communal living at the YWCA and told Cyril she needed another place to live.  He made a few suggestions, including sharing a flat with his ex-girlfriend, but Renske came straight out and asked if she could live with Cyril in his flat !   The problem was that Cyril’s home was a one-bed flat and he slept on a single bed in a room that was full of paintings, easels and other artistic paraphernalia. Renske was not put off by this and said that as they were both small, they could both sleep in the bed.  For Renske, it was nothing to be ashamed of, although her work colleagues at the Dutch-owned company, when they were told, were scandalised,  Scandalised that she was living with a man, scandalised that she was living with a married man twenty-eight years older than her and that his daughter, Sylvia, was only a year younger than her, and scandalised that she was living in a poor and rough council estate. 

Renske and Cyril Mann in the mid 1960s

However, Renske was passionately in love with “her” artist and was not going to listen to subtle and not-so-subtle warnings about what she had done.  News of Renske’s situation of living with a married man got back to her boss who contacted the Dutch embassy in London and asked that her parents be informed about their daughter’s living and romantic situation.  Her father and mother were horrified and she was summoned home.  She was still not twenty-one and therefore, by Dutch law, she remained under their control.  Despite their protestations Renske declared that she would marry Cyril with or without their permission.  One can just imagine the thoughts that were going through the parents’ heads having been told that she intended to marry a man who was a year older than Renske’s own mother.  What her parents failed to realise that it was not the older man who was grooming their young daughter, it was their young daughter who was the prime mover in forging this relationship.  Renske returned to London and moved in with Cyril.  She wanted to marry him but could not as he was still married to his first wife, Mary !

Having lived apart for ten years, the marriage between Cyril and his first wife Mary ended in divorce on August 24th 1960 and eight days later, on September 1st, one week after Renske’s twenty-first birthday, Cyril and Renske were married.

Mixed Flowers by Cyril Mann (1961)

Cyril had suffered stomach ulcers for years and had had to endure constant stomach pains after every meal which had weakened him and caused bouts of ill temper.  One day in April 1960, whilst out walking alone, he collapsed in the street and was rushed to the Royal Free Hospital where he underwent an emergency operation for a perforated stomach ulcer.  Following the operation and probably due to the pressures of having to earn a living from his teaching and the need to sell his artwork, both of which he was unable to do due to his physical illness, he suffered a serious mental breakdown.  Renske was upset by Cyril’s physical and mental decline and set about remedying the situation by putting Cyril’s life back on an even keel.  She believed that Cyril was not able to cope with having to teach, which he hated, and paint and so she maintained her job and became the breadwinner.  For Cyril this financial support from Renske liberated him from the drudgery of having to teach and the necessity of providing money to put food on the table.  After release from hospital Cyril went to convalesce at the Artists’ Rest Home in Rickmansworth, a town in south-west Hertfordshire, where he was allocated a comfortable room, painting facilities and three good meals a day.

Studio Corner by Cyril Mann (1961)

His operation had left Cyril pain-free and he went back to his painting with a noted added gusto, but all was not well.  Renske remembers one horrendous evening when a hyped-up Cyril had decided he was going to design, what he termed, “the greatest mural the world had ever seen”.  She had been sleeping badly and was desperate to go to bed but Cyril refused to let her sleep and demanded that she helped him plan this great mural, an extensive paper plan of which had been tacked to the carpeted floor of their bedroom/living room.  He flew into a rage when Renske just wanted to lay down and sleep and demanded she helped him.  It finally got too much for her and she, determined to have an uninterrupted sleep, took some tranquilizers and sleeping pills and collapsed on the bed.  The next thing she remembered was waking up in hospital.  When she had collapsed, Cyril couldn’t shake her awake, and so he called an ambulance. 

Cyril with black eye

The ambulance arrived along with some police. Cyril demanded that he should accompany her to the hospital in the ambulance but they refused him.  He was furious and lost control, attacking both the ambulance staff and the police and for his troubles received a black eye but worse still another ambulance was summoned and after consultation with a psychiatric nurse, he ordered him to be sectioned, taken to a mental unit, placed in a straitjacket, and then taken to a padded cell.  His passport photograph taken days after the incident shows Cyril with a black eye after his altercation with the ambulance men.

Interior with Red Chair by Cyril Mann (c.1961)

After a fortnight’s detention at the psychiatric hospital, Cyril was allowed home, heavily sedated, and having had to promise to take his medication every day.  Cyril was unhappy with the terms of his release as he believed the medication would threaten his libido.  Besides doing that, he asserted that the pills would also affect his creative artistic thoughts and to counteract this he unilaterally began to reduce the amount of medication he had been prescribed.  As often is the case, to raise spirits Renske decided to perform a deep-clean of the flat and buy some new furniture, including a garishly bright red upholstered chairs which Cyril loved and said that the new additions inspired him.

………..to be continued.

It would not have been possible for me to put together this and following blogs about the artist, Cyril Mann, without information gleaned from a number of sources:

The comprehensive biography of Cyril Mann, The Sun is God by John Russell Taylor

Renske Mann with her book The Girl in the Green Jumper, My life with the artist Cyril Mann

The intimate autobiography of Cyril Mann’s life by his second wife Renske, entitled The Girl in the Green Jumper.

This autobiography has now been turned into a play which receives its World Premiere on Wednesday March 13th at the Playground Theatre, London, 8 Latimer Rd, London W10 6RQ.

Finally, and most importantly I owe many thanks to Renske Mann herself who provided me with information and photographs appertaining to her late husband Cyril.

Piano Nobile Gallery London for information and pictures.

Cyril and Renske Mann. Part 2.

Paris, Mary and Renske

The previous blog ended in the autumn of 1935 with Cyril Mann entering the Royal Academy Schools where he received thorough academic training and a chance to meet fellow ambitious young artists.  Whilst a student there he remained in contact with Bernard Clarke, the chaplain at the Paddington Toc H.  His initial gratitude with being able to study at the school, and have his tuition paid for by his benefactor, Erica Marx, faded a little over the three years he was there as his appreciation turned to the feeling that he was entitled to what the world had on offer and what he had received was rightfully his just desserts.  It was this sense that the world owed him which would last throughout his lifetime and often upset others.  It was this sense of negativity to anything that had benefited him which would blight his life.  The RA Schools stuck to the doctrine of most leading academies of art throughout Europe to savour and teach traditional academic values and skills and dismiss artistic modernity.  However, Cyril, not agreeing with that premise, did agree that he had received a solid technical foundation in painting and drawing. 

Rainy Skyline, Paris by Cyril Mann (c.1938)

It was during his time at the RA Schools that Cyril decided to call into the nearby tea shop on Piccadilly and was served by a young woman, Mary Jervis-Read.  Besides her work at the café, she was also in a school in Regent Street, studying to become an art teacher.  She was described as being pretty, seemingly fragile and yet had an inherent strength of character which certainly fascinated Cyril.  Nothing seemed to come from this initial meeting although contact details were exchanged.  In 1938, Cyril had completed three years at the RA Schools and decided to leave and follow the example of many young British art students – go to Paris to study art at one of the many ateliers.   Fortunately for him, his sponsor, Erica Marx, was still prepared to fund his studies in France,

Park Scene, Paris by Cyril Mann (c.1938)

Cyril Mann arrived in Paris and took a room at the Hôtel de France in the Rue de la Sorbonne and enrolled part-time at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in the Montparnasse district of the city.  Here he came under the tutelage of the Scottish Colourist, John Duncan (J.D.) Fergusson.  For Cyril, studying art in Paris, was like artistic freedom.  Freedom, he believed, from the numbing academic approach served up by the RA Schools.  One of the few close friends Cyril made at the RA Schools, was Guy Roddon, who came over to Paris to see his friend, stayed at Cyril’s hotel. Cyril gave him a tour of the capital and “taught” him how to survive on a few centimes.  They ate at one of Cyril’s favourite workers’ restaurants in St Germain where he said they could eat a hearty meal for hardly any money.  Alas, he was to regret his choice of venues as he came down with a severe bout of food poisoning.  That debilitating illness made Cyril consider his Paris location and lifestyle and so moved out of the putid centre of the French capital and settle for a more salubrious area near the Porte d’Orléans in the city’s 14th Arrondissement. 

Political Rally, Paris by Cyril Mann (1938)

Another visitor for Cyril was the young waitress who had caught his eye in the London tearoom where she worked.  She too was enamoured with the young artist.  Cyril and Guy would regularly meet with a group of international students and would spend many an evening and into the night discussing art.  At this time Cyril had become almost fixated with the works of Turner and how the English Master had depicted the sun and how the effects of direct sunlight had on the subjects of his paintings. 

Place de la Concorde by Cyril Mann (c.1937)

In his 1937 painting, Place de la Concorde, Cyril Mann has once again completed a depiction whilst facing the sun. People are mere silhouetts seen a against a fountain. This method of painting, facing the sun, was one of Mann’s early favourite styles and can be seen in many of his early works.

Pont Neuf, Paris by Cyril Mann (1937)

Another of Cyril’s paintings, Pont Neuf, Paris, which depicted the famous Parisian bridge against a blazing sun backdrop was one he considered to be his first masterpiece.

Cyril and Guy went on a short holiday to Montbazon, five miles south of Tours, a commune on the River Indre, a tributary of the Loire.  It was a rural area and whereas Guy Roddon favoured the views of the landscape, it was obvious that Cyril preferred urban depictions for his paintings and rural beauty never had an emotional impact on him. On occasions when Cyril had depicted trees in his paintings they would be overshadowed by urban elements.   However, although the bustling city of Paris offered Cyril a plentiful opportunity for his depictions, he seemed to be more interested in depicting the effect of the sunlight on the buildings and yet it was maybe more than this.  It appeared to be that Cyril was more interested in the sun itself.

Cyril Mann, on leave from the army,his wife Mary and their daughter Sylvia (1941)

In the early months of 1939, war brewing in Europe and Cyril decided to return to London where Mary Jervis-Read was waiting for him.   By the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 Cyril, once again out of work, and Mary, were living together in what could be termed a loving but hand-to-mouth existence but despite all the financial hardship and future uncertainty, the couple married and the next year their daughter Sylvia was born..

The Red Letter Box by Cyril Mann (c.1949)

Before the birth of his dauhter Cyril received his call-up papers and assigned to the Royal Engineers but was turned down for overseas active service due to him suffering from “hammer-toes”, a deformity of the muscles and ligaments and due to this he was never put on active service but instead served with the Royal Artillery in the anti-aircraft defence on the South Coast of England.  His time in the army affected his relationship with his daughter and wife and it also did not give him time to paint.  His return to painting only came in 1946 when he was demobbed.

All his life Cyril was a difficult man to live with.  He frequently had temper tantrums and people around him were very careful what they said to him so as to avoid such “explosions”.  It was not only his friends that witnessed these outbursts, but his wife Mary was also wary of her husband’s fits of temper.  Cyril’s outbursts often centred around his frustration at not being recognised as a great artist.  One cause for discord was that Mary wanted another child but Cyril did not as she was the family breadwinner and he reckoned that they could not afford a new addition to the family.  Sadly, Mary did become pregnant but suffered a miscarriage.  The relationship between Cyril and Mary came to a head in 1950 when she left him, walking out in the middle of the night and taking with her their ten-year-old daughter, Sylvia.  Mary commented on the inevitable break-up:

“…To live with Cyril you had to love him very much.  I suppose that in the end I didn’t love him enough.  But maybe no one could have done…”

Although Mary’s relationship with Cyril was over, his daughter remained fond of him despite and continued to visit him after he and her mother had gone their separate ways.

Bombsites around Spitalfields, London by Cyril Mann

Bombsite around Paul Street by Cyril Mann

The depictions painted by Cyril after the war were surprising.  Many of his paintings featured the devastation of properties during the Blitz.  For some reason Cyril believed that these would be sort after by the public but he had overestimated people’s desire to be reminded about the hellfire they had lived through often resulting in the death of their relatives.  One example of this was his painting, Bombsites around Spitalfields and another was his gouache on brown paper painting entitled Bombsites around Paul Street, an area which was heavily bombed and where the present Barbican is now situated.

Renske’s parents on their wedding day (June 1937)

Due to the rumblings of war in Europe, Cyril Mann had returned from Paris in the early part of 1939 and he and Mary were reunited. That same year, almost seven and a half thousand miles away from London, another woman, who was to play a major role in Cyril’s life, was born.  She was Renske van Slooten, the daughter of a Jewish-Dutch father, Maximiiaan, a civil engineer and his Dutch-Indonesian wife, Nini, who before raising a family, was a newspaper journalist.  Renske was born in the university town of Bandung, Java on August 24th 1939 and was brought up in a well-to-do family lifestyle in a beautiful house, with servants and luxury cars. 

Renske and Bastiaan with their mother Nini.

She had a older brother Bastiaan who had been born the previous year.  All this good living and happy lifestyle came to a shuddering end on February 28th 1942 when the Japanese forces invaded the island.

Baby Renske

Renske’s father was an officer in the army and was captured and taken prisoner and transported to Burma where he was forced to work on the notorious Burma railway and for three years the family had lost contact with him, fearing the worst.  Renske along with her mother and brother were unceremoniously evicted from their palatial home by the occupying forces and went to stay with their grandmother where they remained until the end of the war in 1945.   Renske’s father eventually returned home.  He was very ill and emaciated, so much so, he was barely recognisable and he too was horrified to see the state my brother and I were in, also emaciated, with swollen stomachs brought on by malnutrition and beriberi.   The family moved from Bandung to Java’s capital Batavia (now Jakarta) to try and start a new life but in 1949 The forces of the Indonesian Liberation Movement fought an independence battle with the Dutch-backed government which eventually led to the Dutch relinquishing the country and eventually Dr Sukrano became the first president.  One of the president’s first edicts was that all Dutch-Indonesians must choose between remaining in the country and giving up their Dutch passports or being expelled from their homeland, taking nothing with them.  Renske’s parents chose the latter.

MS Skipjack

In 1950 Renske, her family including her grandmother, left Java on the Sibajak, which was once a luxury liner that had been converted into a troop ship. Her mother was eight months pregnant with her third child, Adriaan. Between 1945 and 1950 the Netherlands Government required the Sibajak as well as other Dutch Liners to be utilised to evacuate their citizens and other people from their threatened colony and also to transport troops to the various theatres of war on the other side of the globe. It was a horrific voyage and Renske remembers her mother being sick during the whole voyage. The ship was over-full with refugees escaping Sukrano’s regime.

The family landed in Rotterdam and travelled to The Hague where Renske’s father had secured some emergency accommodation. On August 24th 1950, a month after their arrival in The Netherlands and eleven years, to the day, after the birth of Renske, her brother Adriaan was born. 

Cyril Mann painting en plein air

Renske’s father’s Bandung civil engineering degree was not recognised in The Netherlands and so he had to return to university in Delft to gain a second engineering degree.  Renske’s mother was struggling with running the household as she couldn’t cook or organise housekeeping, all of which had been carried out by their servants back in Java.  What was worse for the family was the racism they encountered.  The Netherlands had suffered under the five-year Nazi occupation.  There were food and housing shortages and now five years after the war had ended three hundred thousand “dark-skinned” penniless refugees had been given sanctuary in this country.

Cyril Mann setting up his exhibition at the Park Row Gallery of the Midland Group of Artistsand Designers in 1953

Things did improve for Renske and her family.  Her father was appointed a lecturer in mechanical engineering at the local technical college and the family received a legacy on the sudden death of Renske’s wealthy Jewish grandmother with which her father purchased a semi-detached house in an upmarket suburb.  In October 1953 there was another addition to the family with the birth of Francisca.   After completing a torrid time at primary school where she was bullied, Renske managed, after some private coaching, to gain entrance to an all-girls grammar school where she gained good results in her final exams in maths and four foreign languages.  Then came a dividing of opinions on her future between Renske and her parents.  She wanted to go to art college but they demanded that she took a paying job and contribute to the family finances. This did not please fifteen-year-old Renske who vividly remembers an incident shortly after hearing of her parents’ plans for her:

“…I was walking around a park in my home town of Dordrecht, when the Park warden came up to me and asked why I looked sad. I told him: my parents won’t let me go to art school. I have to learn shorthand typing.’ The park warden replied: ‘I’m psychic, and I tell you that you’ll have all the art in your life you could want. You’ll marry an artist. You’ll know him the minute you see him. In fact, I see him standing behind you.’  A few minutes later, the park warden again: ‘No, that can’t be him… he’s  too old. That must be his father. He’ll look after you for the rest of your life…”

The family Renske left behind in Holland when she went to London.      Mother Nini van Slooten, Francisca born in 1953, Adriaan born in 1950 and Bastiaan her elder brother and father, Max van Slooten.

And so at the age of sixteen she was enrolled at a secretarial college to learn shorthand and on securing her first secretarial job, her mother took half of her take-home pay, which made her aggrieved and, in her mind, poor. Renske intensely disliked living in Dordrecht and was delighted to leave there and travel to London where she arrived in July 1959, a month before her twentieth birthday. She received no opposition from her parents with regard so her travel plans and maybe her departure ended the clashes between her and her mother and father. In her own words Renske explained:

“…I think my parents were relieved to see the back of me, and I don’t blame them in retrospect. I was not the perfect daughter, sulky and bored, frequent boyfriend trouble and never falling for the right prospect. Lacking ambition myself, badly educated with frequent spells without any schooling due to the war and later independence struggles, nobody had any expectations of me (including myself)…”

Renske, aged 19, just before she went to London

On arriving in the English capital, Renske had to secure a secretarial position but she was well qualified as she was competent in Dutch, French and English shorthand as well as being fluent in them.  She soon found work with a salary four times greater than she was receiving in the Netherlands.  She stayed in the local YWCA and soon struck up friendships with the other girls who were from many different countries.  It was not all work and no play for Renske and one day a young Cypriot asked her out to go with him to a dance at the Hammersmith Palais in West London. As he got to know her he realised that she, like him, had a love of art and he offered to take her to one of his art evening classes he used to attend and so meet his former teacher. She agreed, they went and he introduced her to his art teacher – Cyril Mann.

……. to be continued.

It would not have been possible for me to put together this and following blogs about the artist, Cyril Mann, without information gleaned from a number of sources:

The comprehensive biography of Cyril Mann, The Sun is God by John Russell Taylor

Renske Mann with her book The Girl in the Green Jumper, My life with the artist Cyril Mann

The intimate autobiography of Cyril Mann’s life by his second wife Renske, entitled The Girl in the Green Jumper.

This autobiography has now been turned into a play which receives its World Premiere on Wednesday March 13th at the Playground Theatre, London, 8 Latimer Rd, London W10 6RQU

Finally, and most importantly I owe many thanks to Renske Mann herself who provided me with information and photographs appertaining to her late husband Cyril.

Piano Nobile Gallery London for information and pictures.

Cyril and Renske Mann. Part 1.

Cyril Mann – the early years and Canada.

No man succeeds without a good woman behind him. Wife or mother, if it is both, he is twice blessed indeed.

Harold MacMillan

In many of my blogs I have related the story of a husband and wife who had both been artists but after the marriage and after the birth of the children one has had to give up their career as an artist to look after their spouse and children and that caring role always seems to land at the feet of the wife, who then dedicates her life to her artist husband or partner.  The next few blogs are going to look at the lives of a great British artist and the support and love he received from his young wife which allowed him to become a well-known painter.  This is not simply a tale about an artist, it is about the resilience of his young wife and how she battled his moods and supported him through times of his severe depression. Please settle back and join me as I explore the lives of the English artist Cyril Mann and his beautiful young wife, Renske.

My earliest self-portrait by Cyril Mann (1937)

To start this journey, one must look at Cyril’s upbringing and, as one knows, a person is often affected or moulded by their early life experiences.  Cyril’s father was William Aloysius Mann who was brought up in a reputable middle-class Nottingham family environment.  He was the third child of four, having an elder sister and brother, Annie and Will and a younger brother Austen.  Like most parents Cyril’s grandparents were hopeful that their four children would make good in life.  Their aspirations for Cyril’s father turned to despair when the only job he could secure was one of a bricklayer, which they considered to be a menial profession and somewhat below the family’s social status.  If that was not bad enough, Cyril’s father became romantically entangled with a local working-class woman, Gertrude Nellie Burrows, whom his parents believed was not good enough for their son.  In a pointed slight to her, they would refer to her as Gertie, when she was better known as Nellie.

William and Gertrude Mann’s circumstances became worse when he became unemployed and so, to seek work, the family left Nottingham and moved to London.  Their son Cyril was born in Paddington, London on May 28th 1911.  At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 William Mann was conscripted into the army and was shipped off to fight on the Western Front.  In 1918, after many years of witnessing the horrors of war, he was honourably discharged as “shell shocked”. 

Saxondale Psychiatric Hospital

The war had taken the toll on William’s mental health and he would never be the same again.  On returning to civilian life, the family returned to Nottingham and William was committed to the Saxondale Hospital in Sneiton, the city’s psychiatric hospital.  Cyril’s father would remain there until his death in 1938 but during his twenty years of incarceration he would make a number of escapes !

Times were hard for Gertrude who had to try and survive on her husband’s small war pension and bring up four children.  Unlike her husband who had been lazy, untrustworthy and very often easily distracted, his wife was the total opposite.  She was resilient, down-to-earth and strongminded when it came to bringing up her young family.  One does not know for sure how the children were affected by the family circumstances but going on public transport to collect their father from the asylum for his home leave on public holidays must have affected them psychologically.

The children did survive their early childhood.  Cyril’s brothers Austen and Will proved to be musical with Austen winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Music but never got to go there as he was diagnosed as being partially deaf.  Cyril’s father, before going off to war, was also musical and had been an accomplished violinist.  Cyril’s paternal grandfather had been a talented amateur artist who had had his work exhibited at the Nottingham Castle Art Museum.  Cyril developed his own artistic flair when young and was always top in his art class at school.  He was so talented that at the age of twelve, he won an art scholarship to Nottingham School of Art and his mother had to get special dispensation to take him out of regular school as he was under fourteen years of age. 

One of Constant Troyon’s paintings featuring cattle (Pastoral Scene c.1860)

In later years Cyril talked about his early interest in art and how he had been impressed at seeing one of Constant Troyon’s paintings of cattle.

Dark Satanic Mills by Cyril Mann (1925)

One of Cyril’s early paintings that still exists is entitled Dark Satanic Mills which he completed in 1925, when he was just fourteen years of age. The painting depicts a park in the foreground and a dark threatening-looking factory in the background with thick black smoke issuing from its chimneys.  In the midground we see figures enjoying park life.  It is an extraordinary landscape work for someone so young.  Cyril’s mother needed financial support from her children to supplement her husband’s pension and so she had to withdraw Cyril from the Art College and install him in a paying-job that would bolster the household finances. Cyril must have been upset at being taken away from the art school but took an exam to join Boots the Chemist as a clerk.  He failed and this must have come as a surprise to his mother as her son had always excelled at regular school and one has to wonder whether Cyril had deliberately failed as he hated the thought of a job as a clerk when he wanted to continue with his art.  However, and probably much to his annoyance, he did eventually work as a clerk until he was sixteen.

Sixteen-year-old Cyril Mann prior to moving to Canada (c.1927)

In 1927, aged sixteen, Cyril’s life changed.  His mother Nellie had always been a religious person and had insisted that her children attended the High Anglican Church and Cyril, for a time, was an altar boy.  In a way, and in the mind of his mother, this churchgoing brought to the family an air of respectability and sophistication and, in her mind, it was a way to gain social progression and an elevated status.  Cyril at this time became very friendly with a local priest who offered to accompany him to Canada, all expenses paid, so that he may “enter” the church and become a young missionary. 

Fishermen, Canada by Cyril Mann (1929)

It took little time for young Cyril to acquiesce to the priest’s request.  It was probably a combination of the thought of adventure similar to what he had seen in the Boy’s Own Paper, youthful religious zeal and the thought of freeing himself from his controlling mother.  Having reached Canada, it was not long before Cyril began to question his decision about serving God as a missionary and he and the priest parted company.

Eighteen-year-old Cyril Mann in Canada (Winter 1929)

Cyril then tried out many jobs – a miner, a logger, a travelling salesman and ended up as a printer in British Columbia on the Canadian side of the Alaskan border. 

Cyril Mann, artist at work in Canada (c.1930)

He was now living in the midst of beautifully spectacular landscapes – a landscape artist’s paradise, and soon he began to sketch and paint the breathtaking views. 

Canada- Mountainscape by Cyril Mann (c.1931)

Panning for Gold by Cyril Mann (c.1929)

In Canada at that time, the prevailing influence in Canadian art was the artwork of the Group of Seven.  The Group of Seven also known as the Algonquin School was a group of Canadian landscape painters from 1920 to 1933.  The original members were Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley.  They believed that a distinct Canadian art could be developed through direct contact with nature, the Group is best known for its paintings inspired by the Canadian landscape and they initiated the first major Canadian national art movement.  Their artwork was highly colourful and often depicted Autumn and Winter scenes, and they believed that the power of the light from the sun was to be recorded in their work.

Six of the Group of Seven, plus their friend Barker Fairley, in 1920. From left to right: Frederick Varley, A. Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, Barker Fairley, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, and J. E. H. MacDonald. It was taken at The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto.

Cyril Mann was impressed and influenced by the work of the Group of Seven along wth one of their associates, Tom Thomson and in 1932 he visited a Group of Seven exhibition in Vancouver and met one of the group, Arthur Lismer who was then working as a lecturer. 

Old Pine, McGregor Bay by Arthur Lismer (c.1929)

Arthur Lismer had been born in Sheffield, England in 1885 and had emigrated to Canada in 1911.  Lismer advised Cyril that if he wanted to become a professional artist he should return to England and access the best artistic tuition available, Cyril saw the sense in the advice and in early 1933 he returned to his homeland. 

A Mann family outing in Skegness. Cyril on the far right whilst his mother Gertrude is in the middle, Cyril’s older sister Annie is second from the left next to her husband. The other two men are thought to be Gertrude’s brother Austen on her left and Cyril’s younger brother Austen wearing the white clothes. on her right. 

Nottingham Houses by Cyril Mann (c.1933)                  Cyril has depicted his mother tending the garden

After landing in England, he travelled to the family home in Nottingham.  To his surprise he wasn’t greeted with a hearty welcome from his mother, instead she was very critical about his physical appearance.  Cyril was both upset and very annoyed by his mother’s authoritarian manner which he had had to endure through childhood and, there and then, decided his future home would not be with his family in Nottingham but instead he would head south to the English capital. 

Maida Vale Canal by Cyril Mann (c.1934)

Arriving in London in 1933, during the Great Depression, Cyril the young aspiring artist, despite finding it impossible to find a job carried on with his watercolour painting depicting various loacations around Paddington and around the Little Venice canal in Maida Vale, while he he took time off from his paintingnto to join the ever-lengthening dole queues.  He found and rented a cheap apartment in Paddington, close to where he was born, and endured the degradation of poor living standards and little money for sustenance.  With not having employment he had plenty of free time which he partly filled with painting local scenes using watercolours.  Having left school at the age of twelve he realised he had missed a lot and he now developed an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.  He was a regular visitor at the local libraries and was always willing to engage in conversation with those he encountered so that his knowledge of the world would be broadened and because of his current circumstances, he soon gained an interest in left-wing politics. 

Mountain Landscape by Cyril Mann

Having said this, Cyril never joined any official political group but a group he did join was the Toc H Group.  The Toc H Group was an international Christian movement whose name was derived from Talbot House, a soldiers’ rest and recreation centre at Poperinghe, Belgium. Its aim was to promote Christianity and look after young soldiers who were returning to civilian life.  Each branch of the Toc H had a chaplain to look after the spiritual needs of its members.  During the Depression Toc H looked after the many civilians hit by unemployment and, as one of the many people without a job, Cyril came to be one of those who regularly met at the Paddington Toc H in a canal boatmen’s’ club room.  Here he could talk to people, which must have been a Godsend for the young man who was out of work and lived alone.  The new young chaplain who arrived at the Paddington Toc H in 1935 was Oliver Fielding Clarke, known to everybody as “Bernie”.  The chairman of the association asked Clarke to keep a close eye on Cyril, whom he described as “out of work, practically a communist and sometimes pretty blunt with others”.  Shortly after receiving that “task” Clarke met Cyril and was completely captivated by the young aspiring painter.  In Clarke’s 1970 autobiography Unfinished Conflict, he remembers his conversations with Cyril Mann:

“…I have had many friends and a good deal of the first part of my ministry was given to young men, but few if any of them did more for me than Cyril.  We would spend hours and hours together in the evenings and he never spared himself for me.  In the early days he had been a [alter] server so that he was not in the least awed by parsons and he also knew how to challenge, or perhaps blister is a more accurate word, a parson’s conscience.  I used to get back to Liddon House in the small hours of the morning feeling almost as if we had been engaged in physical combat.  Cyril pulverised capitalism and the Church for being its running- dog.  He tore to shreds any suggestions that milk-and-water Christian Socialism was the answer and we argued hotly about the existence of God and the nature of morality…  All this was interspersed by talk about his art, when he would show me what he had been drawing or painting and what he was looking for as an artist….Both of us thoroughly enjoyed those long evenings; but they did not work in the way that had been expected.  Cyril did not move further away from Communism nor nearer to the Church.  Instead, I became more and more critical of the Church and increasingly convinced of the truth contained in the teachings of Karl Marx…”

St Pauls by Cyril Mann

It is quite clear from this description that Cyril Mann was an outspoken person with strongly held views which he stuck to notwithstanding the views of others.  It is also obvious he had a great self-belief but it could be levied against him that he was aggressively antagonistic to those who did not share his views and it was this latter characteristic which would become a problem for him in later life.

Despite their fiery discussions and the intransigence of Cyril, Bernie Clarke did not give up on him and decided to call in favours from friends in order to get Cyril into employment.  The chairman of the Paddington branch of the Toc H arranged for a place at the Royal Academy Schools be made available to Cyril and a friend of Clarke, the twenty-five-year-old daughter of a rich German businessman, Erica Marx, who was a poet, philanthropist and loved art saw the artistic potential of Cyril and set up a trust fund for him to finance his time at the art school.  She would remain a lifelong friend and supporter of his and would often buy his paintings.

Dahlias by Cyril Mann

The first half of the 1930s had been a rollercoaster ride for Cyril Mann.  Out of work unable to feed himself and yet came through it all and entered the Royal Academy Schools in the Autumn of 1935. The lives of his family back in Nottingham had also been a rollercoaster ride caused by tragedy.  Cyril’s elder brother Will died in a lift accident in the Midland hotel in Nottingham where he worked and his younger brother Austen drowned in a river whilst out swimming.  His death was witnessed by his wife and two young children who thought his violent thrashing in the water was him playing.

In 1935, now at the Royal Academy Schools, Cyril Mann had taken the first step in becoming a professional artist.

……….to be continued

It would not have been possible for me to put together this and following blogs about the artist, Cyril Mann, without information gleaned from a number of sources:

The comprehensive biography of Cyril Mann, The Sun is God by John Russell Taylor

Renske Mann with her book The Girl in the Green Jumper, My life with the artist Cyril Mann. 

This intimate autobiography of her life with Cyril Mann by his second wife Renske, entitled The Girl in the Green Jumpe was a beautifully written story of her life and love for her husnband.

This autobiography has now been turned into a play which receives its World Premiere on Wednesday March 13th at the Playground Theatre, London, 8 Latimer Rd, London W10 6RQU.

The Piano Nobile, a London art gallery which was established by Dr Robert Travers in 1985. The gallery plays an active role in the market for twentieth-century British and international art and has held exhibitions of Cyril Mann’s art.

Finally, and most importantly, I owe many thanks to Renske Mann herself who provided me with information and photographs appertaining to herself and her late husband Cyril.