Hermione Hammond was the wife of a British administrator who served in Cyprus in 1951. The focal point of the picture is the whitewashed church of Archangel Michael by the shore in Kyrenia. In the fifties, the church was still surrounded by palm and fig trees which were used by the neighbours for their washlines. The juxtaposition of the most revered Christian site in Kyrenia to the mundane arrangements of daily life creates a surrealistic effect.
Hermione Hammond was an artist in a wide range of media, except acrylic, born in Hexham, Northumberland. She studied at Chelsea Polytechnic with Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland and at Royal Academy Schools with Walter Russell and Tom Monnington. She also studied etching at night classes. She was most famous for her paintings of London damaged by the Blitz during World War II.
PNT-00286 > Hermione Hammond (1910-2005), Cathedral, Kyrenia, Oil on wood, 27x33cm, 1951
