Still Life: The Pickwick Club, 1950s
Elwell had a skill with painting still life subjects, which was due in part to his thorough training at Lincoln School of Art and his later studies of Dutch art in Antwerp. His first known signed and dated work was 'Still Life with Fish', with which he won a national art prize. His talents at depicting such objects as plates and copper pans permeated much of his work, and he frequently worked still lifes into his larger narrative paintings. Towards the end of his life, Elwell returned to the still life as a subject in its own right, and it is from this period that 'Still Life: The Pickwick Club' appears to date. The painting takes its title from the picture of the Pickwick Club that appears on the wall within the composition. A punchbowl and glasses, silver salver, candelabra, decanter and pipes are amongst the objects that Elwell also includes, both to demonstrate his artistic skills and to evoke the convivial atmosphere of the gentlemen in the debating club. Elwell was a master in using highlights to convey the play of light upon objects and is clearly evident in the flicks of white paint on the jug and in the reflections on the silver plate. This painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1956, and again in 1958, posthumously. It was one of the pictures sold from Bar House following the death of Elwell that year.
