Heinz Koppel (1919 Berlin, Germany – 1980 Cwmerfyn, Wales)
Happy Family, 1953
Tempera on hardboard
102 x 76 cm
Heinz Koppel Picture Trust
© The Estate of Heinz Koppel
Immigrated to England 1939
Happy Family was executed while Koppel was living in Dowlais, South Wales, initially working as an art teacher in Merthyr Tydfil Educational Settlement (a school for workers and their families), and then as Head of the Dowlais Art Centre, in the years when his own young family was rapidly expanding. As in his other compositions from this period, his bright palette and non-naturalistic treatment of the figures combine to create a mood of fantastical storytelling. The three children, particularly the central girl with her laughing expression, swinging plaits and skirt ballooning out behind her, appear to form a joyful chorus as they float above the town like angels; her rounded shape is echoed by the comical form of a bended figure at the centre of the composition, almost bisected by a telegraph pole towering above him. Two dogs play or scrap on the road beneath them while beyond the road the town is revealed through a series of colourful rooftops compressed like the folds of a concertina.
