Peter Rose Pulham, British 1910-1956 - Oil Lamp (with unfinished abstract composition on the reverse), 1944-45; oil on canvas, signed titled and dated on the reverse 'Peter Rose Pulham Oil Lamp 1944-45', 61 x 91.3 cm (unframed) (ARR) Provenance: Mick Mulligan, Chichester; private collection Note: With thanks to Silvano Levy and Desmond Morris for their assistance in the cataloguing of this work. This extraordinary work was made during the Second World War, when the artist became friends with Francis Bacon. Both artists were developing their mature style during this period and Bacon楼s early influence can be seen in the dense composition and deep, flattened use of colour. Peter Rose Pulham楼s initially worked as a photographer, moving to Paris in the 1930s where he created celebrated photographic portraits of Pablo Picasso in his studio and discovered and became involved with the Surrealists. Examples of Pulham鈥毭劽垛垰脩鈭毬 work can be found in the National Galleries of Scotland and Tate collections. During his lifetime, the artist exhibited with Redfern Gallery in 1947, Hanover Gallery in 1950 and the ICA in 1952. Mick Mulligan was a jazz musician and friend and musical partner of George Melly, who also worked at the London Gallery. The London Gallery had been founded in the 1930s by Lady Peter Norton, focusing on avant-garde European art, and was later sold to Roland Penrose, and was run by the Belgian Surrealist E. L. T. Mesens. Please refer to department for condition report