HUGH CRONYN (1905-1996) Norah McGuinness signed and dated HUGH/CRONYN 37 (lower right), signed again and titled (on an artist label attached to the reverse) oil on canvas, unframed 61 x 51 cm (24 x 20 in) PROVENANCE: Artist's Estate The present work depicts Irish painter Norah McGuinness (1901-80), Cronyn’s friend and neighbour, just before her departure for New York. Painted from the entrance to Cronyn's studio at 9A Black Lion Lane, behind Norah is ‘Bell Steps’, 1a Hammersmith Terrace, where she lived, with its distinctive green door and the adjacent steps leading down to the Thames. To her right is The Black Lion, where she, Cronyn and other artists in Hammersmith and Chiswick congregated. Like Cronyn, McGuinness had attended classes in the studio of André Lhote in Paris. Back in London in the 1930s she became associated with Lucy Wertheims’s Gallery in Mayfair, and the London Group.