Headrest and Handstand, 1957

H. Andrew Freeth RA (1912 - 1986)

RA Collection: Art

H.A. Freeth (1912-1986) first exhibited his etchings at the R.A. in 1935 and continued to do so regularly up until 1970. He was elected Associate in 1955, around the time that, as Stephen Wildman noted , ‘a melancholy note begins to predominate’ in his work ‘with a series of figures who are poor, lonely or down on their luck (witness also Poor Man and Pigeons, R.A. 1958; Old Man and Young Lovers, R.A. 1960; Paddy Reminiscing , R.A. and R.E. 1967).’ Amongst Freeth’s etchings of figures on the margins of society, Wildman believed Headrest and Handstand to be ‘without doubt the most striking’ (Stephen Wildman, Two Birmingham Painter-Etchers: R.T. Cowern (1913-1986) and H.A. Freeth (1912-1986, exhibition catalogue, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 1988).

Headrest and Headstand was exhibited at the R.A. in 1957 and was submitted as Freeth’s Diploma Work on his election as Member in 1965.