18th November 2025
Earlier this year a cache of work by the Albanian artist Chatin Sarachi appeared at the auctioneers Ewbanks.
I was lucky enough to secure a folder of drawings by Sarachi with quite a number being impressionistic crayon sketches of the River Thames in the Chelsea and Battersea areas, as it looked shortly after the second war. The drawings have a fresh, colourful take on the River Thames, conveying the bustle and industry along with watery beauty. Evidence shows that Sarachi was working with the important Expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka, and shared a studio with him in West London. The artist also worked with watercolourist and set designer Leslie Hurry, and the latter two exhibited together at the Redfern Gallery on Cork Street in 1945. Works by Marc Chagall, John Nash, Gilbert Spencer, Sir John Lavery, Ivon Hitchens, Duncan Grant and Victor Pasmore were in show at the Redfern Gallery on this date, so Sarachi was in good company. 