Walter Hoyle Still Life With Camus postcard

Working with lino cut print technique, this still life depicts a domestic scene centred on two chairs; one with a bowl of fruit, the other with a yellow shirt draped over its back. On the floor, under the second chair a book by Albert Camus is casually placed. As also seen in Hoyle’s Still Life with Mac Orlan and Still Life with Picasso, these objects nod to France. These everyday details offer a glimpse into Hoyle’s domestic environment. 

Hoyle’s connection to France came partly through his wife, the Paris-born artist and potter Denise Colombo (b. 1935). After retiring from teaching in 1985, the couple settled in Hastings but kept a flat in Dieppe, bought the previous year, where they spent much of their time. Dieppe, and French culture more broadly, became an increasingly important presence in Hoyle’s later work. 

Artist Chloe Cheese, who knew the couple through her father, fellow Great Bardfield artist Bernard Cheese, recalled Denise working at home on her own paintings and collages, describing them as having "a dash of French 'joie de vivre'". That spirit runs through Hoyle's still life too, where ordinary domestic objects sit alongside references to French literature, art and everyday life.