Flowers in a Vase, 1934-36 (oil on strawboard)

A large semi-abstract group of bright spring flowers in a heavy glass vase. The vase is positioned on a square white table to the left of the centre, which stands on grey floorboards. The vase contains 4 varieties of flower and a dark branch with leaves, all painted simply and broadly. There is some colour on the background wall. Hitchens, like many artists of the 1920s and 1930s, used still life for experimenting with the forms of European modernism. The clear, flat colours, broken forms and loose brushwork demonstrate the influence of Henri Matisse.