1913 Pencil on thin cream F.J.Head sketchbook paper
255 x 187 mm. Purchase: Peter Jones, Bury St Edmunds 2005 Funding support: MLA / V & A
Drawing for the etching 'Vire, Normandy', see PR1605. After receiving his Diploma at the Royal College, Richards went on a tour from Honfleur to Vire in Normandy making drawings which he later made into etchings. Vire was heavily bombed in 1944 and was thereafter nearly entirely rebuilt. However, a few architectural features remain including the clock tower built over a 13th century gateway and the Eglise Notre Dame from the same period. For other views of Vire by Richards see WD1012, WD1010
Sketch of a street scene in Vire, Normandy; foreground, a road, pavements, pedestrians, a lamp and houses / shops with canopies, signboards and shuttered windows; middleground, shops with signboards and dormer windows, pedestrians, an old clock tower buiding with a small window, a belfry with a small cupola, a clock (reading 10 to 11), a small statue in an alcove and an arched gateway over the road; background, a pylon / telegraph pole with wires. Pencil sketch with considerable tone. Text on image, on signboards, 'LAFORCE', 'H.ERMICE', 'ANDOULLES DE VIRE', 'AU BON COIN PATISSIER' and 'JOERIMANN'. Paper has a perforated left margin. Drawing extends to paper edges
