20th Century British School Portrait Of A Woman By Ruby Bostock 1971

Portrait of a Woman, Near the Canal, Great Haywood by Ruby Bostock, British, 1971

A powerful and unusually textured portrait from Ruby Bostock, dated 1971 and inscribed on the verso "Canal near Gr. Haywood" — placing the sitting at Great Haywood, Staffordshire, the historic village at the junction of the Trent & Mersey and Staffordshire & Worcestershire canals, England.

The subject sits with quiet self-possession: a young woman in a green jacket and open-collared lavender shirt, dark-eyed and direct, hands resting loosely in her lap. The face is modelled with restraint and clarity in warm ochre and umber, while the clothing erupts into dense, gestural impasto — the green jacket built up in thick ridges of paint that catch the light almost sculpturally. The contrast is deliberate and arresting: stillness and surface energy held in productive tension.

Ruby Bostock is a documented British artist with work held in the permanent collection of North Somerset Council, England.

Signed and dated lower right: Ruby Bostock / 1971. Presented unframed on card.

Medium: Oil on card
Dimensions: 38 x 50 cm (15 x 19¾ in)
Date: 1971 (signed and dated)
Period: British, Post-War figurative
Origin: Great Haywood, Staffordshire
Condition: Good overall; minor paint loss consistent with age; unframed
Verso: Artist's inscription — "Canal near Gr. Haywood"
Signed: Lower right, Ruby Bostock 1971