Two Figures in a Garden

Carel Weight was a prolific painter of domestic and suburban scenes around his home in south-west London. Two Figures in a Garden is one of a series of paintings depicting Weight’s home at 33 Spencer Road. Weight painted the garden repeatedly, from many viewpoints, for subjects ranging from supernatural visions to domestic tragedies. In a letter to the owner of his painting The Broken Trellis, Weight describes the garden’s influence on his art: ‘My garden, especially in winter, seems to offer infinite sources for pictures. All sorts of things have happened and a broken trellis is a rather mild event compared with other versions that include Ghosts, Murders, rapes and domestic dramas of all sorts.’ The Geffrye Museum specialises in middle-class London homes from 1600 onwards, and Two Figures in a Garden will join its growing collection of paintings showing 20th-century London gardens.