Lenten Roses

Anne Redpath 1895-1965
Lenten Roses 1960
Watercolour on board
584 x 787 mm
Tate Gallery, London

Lenten roses flower in early spring, around the period of Lent.

Despite their name, they are not roses but hellebores.

Hellebores are widely grown in gardens for decorative purposes, as well as for their purported medicinal abilities.

Anne Redpath (1895–1965) was a Scottish artist whose vivid domestic still-lifes are among her best-known works.

In the 1950s and early 1960s she also travelled in Europe, painting in Spain, the Canary Islands, Corsica, Brittany, Venice and elsewhere.

A Scottish Protestant, she discovered the richness of Catholic imagery and this is explored in her later work.

Some later works reflect religious influences, especially paintings of altars in The Chapel of St Jean - Treboul (1954) and Venetian Altar.