Leslie Roy Hobdell
Born in 1911. He is noted for his surrealist paintings and his striking trompe l’oeil pictures and murals. After studying at the Camberwell School of Art, Hobdell began a collaboration with the photographer and set designer Angus McBean making fantastical backdrops for ballets and plays on the London stage. At the time, Roy was earning a living working at the Lintas advertising agency. In the 40’s he lived with his partner Philip Harris in a london flat. At the time of his father's death, his mother, Iris, joined Roy and Phillip, living at their flat until her death in 1951. This was strangely reminiscent of the identical living arrangements for Angus McBean, his mother and his partner David Ball. In 1949 Roy and Phillip ordered a clavichord from the best maker of early keyboard instruments at the time, Hugh Gough and Roy painted a fantastical decoration on the inside of the lid, full of his whimsy and erotica. The centre is decorated with a death's head skull and with the initials PH and RH dated 1954 [now in a private collection]. As a convincing trompe l’oeil muralist, Hobdell contrasted growth with decay in his surreal paintings of flowers growing among stones set in dilapidated structures, post blitz. Roy worked for Lord Farringdon in Buscot House where he created a set of fantasy rooms on the ground floor where Lord Farringdon would live part of the time. He also decorated the entrance way to the outdoor swimming pool. He also worked for Lord Berners and Heber Percy in Farringdon House, where he created a fantasy bathroom and secret cupboard within a bookcase. The visitors books for Faringdon record visits by Roy and his partner, indicating that his times there were also as a family friend. In particular the books show that Roy was there just weeks before he took his own life on the 21st March 1961.
This series of watercolours is unusual in his oeuvre and were originally bound together in three large Morocco albums. As they were inherited by a family member it is most probable that they were created by Roy as records of his European travels with Philip and not meant for sale.