This exquisite lineal landscape provides us with an unusually direct view of Hitchens’ thinking on canvas. Lines in blue and grey cross its broad white ground, meeting brushed areas of tone and longer horizontal strokes. Some marks establish a direction in a single movement; others test its weight or alter the space around it. The exposed ground is integral to the composition, allowing each gesture to be seen clearly and each interval to retain its force. 

Of particular interest is the angular form near the centre. Its rising and descending lines invite comparison with the central structure in Hitchens’ Giant Oak Tree on Green Sky on Fields of 1978, in the Collection of the Courtauld Gallery, London. In this pinnacle artwork, a complex group of marks suggests the oak’s canopy and trunk, while the landscape opens towards the right. The study and the Courtauld work show a compelling kinship in their long format and the way a central form directs movement across the canvas, establishing this as a preparatory study for this painting.

Hitchens gave the study directly to contemporary artist Kenneth Webb. Its presence among the finished paintings is a testament to their friendship and artistic bond. Kenneth valued this as an object that reveals the decisions behind Hitchens’ expressive landscapes: the placement of a line, the space left open, and the moment when a painted gesture begins to suggest a tree or a distant field. In itself it is a vibrantly modern abstract work.