Codrington spent much time in Cyprus and travelled all over the island. His brushes and palette were employed to glorify the light and the colours of the landscape and to record most of the important monuments.
‘The Majors’ was in fact a nickname used for two British women who served as nurses in the British army and were reputed to have an intense friendship. Also known as ‘the cave women’, they lived in a house on a hill above Kyrenia known as Giklos. Betty Hunter-Cowan, the eldest, was well off and returned to Scotland in the 1980’s. Phyllis Heyman, who was an excellent cook, left Giklos in 1989 and settled in the centre of Kyrenia.
The view in the watercolour is of a field in Giklos in spring 1973. John Codrington visited Cyprus on several occasions. He first came in 1921 and then in 1923, 1933, 1968 and 1973. This landscape view abounds in tulips and cyclamens under carob trees.
John Codrington was born in England in 1898. He had a career as a British Army officer, but his true passions were gardens and watercolour paintings, which he never exhibited, thus leaving nearly 4.000 pictures to his nephew when he died.
PNT-00114 > Codrington, John (1898-1991) > Tulips and cyclamens, "The Majors" near Kyrenia, Watercolour, 12.5x16.5 cm, 1973
The 'Sneak Peek' series is supported by The Hellenic Initiative Canada.
