*Michael Ayrton (1921-1975), TOREADOR Signed and dated 1940 u.r., watercolour, bodycolour and pen and ink 42 x 60cm Exhibited: Chichester, Festival Exhibition, The Tudor Room of the Bishop's Palace, 'The Continental Muse, British Painters in Europe from Turner to the Present Day', July 1992, no. 38. In 1938 Ayrton went to Paris with John Minton where they studied under Giorgio de Chirico before the impending war hastened their return to London. In the present work, with the pinky-blue hues and bullring imagery, Ayrton is clearly influenced by de Chirico. As Malcolm Yorke comments, this work and others like it are, 'remarkably escapist and sentimental considering their creator's political commitment and the war raging around him'. (See M. Yorke, The Spirit of Place, London, 1988, p.197). *Artist's Resale Right may apply to this lot.