Isabel Rawsthorne, 
British 1912-1992 - 
Stoats and Moon, c.1984 (with 'Dancers' on the reverse),...

Isabel Rawsthorne, 
British 1912-1992 - 

Stoats and Moon, c.1984 (with 'Dancers' on the reverse), c.1970s; 

oil on canvas, signed with monogram lower right, 76.5 x 51 cm (unframed) (ARR) 

Note: 
the artist was known variously as Isabel Nicholas, Isabel Delmer and Isabel Lambert. 

The related work, 'Stoats and Moon, c.1985' (private collection), is reproduced in Carol Jacobi's 'Out of the Cage: The Art of Isabel Rawsthorne' (Thames & Hudson, 2021). 

This work is from the artist's 'Migrations' series, which reflect her experiences of the Essex countryside, where she lived after the war. Here the scale is simultaneously micro and macroscopic, with vegetal and animal forms floating in abstract shapes of colour that could equally be a view down a microscope or of a constellation. The form of the stoat floating in a blue sphere is depicted twice, one more detailed than the other, evoking a sense of a developing organism within a cell. 

'Dancers' on the reverse of the work was inspired by Rawsthorne's experiences of working as a set and costume designer for the The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera, from 1951 to 1961. She came to this work through her second husband, Constant Lambert, who was a composer and Founder Music Director of The Royal Ballet. She would frequently sketch and paint ballet dancers and in her work was interested in depicting an ephemeral sense of the human body. Examples of these works 'Svetlana Beriosova – Study of Ballet Dancer (1)' and 'Study of a Ballet Dancer (2)' are now in the collection of Fry Art Gallery. 

Alongside her painting, Rawsthorne is celebrated for her position in European cultural circles across the 20th century, being associated with and depicted by figures including Jacob Epstein, Alberto Giacometti and André Derain.