Wine Cellars of Messrs Snow & Co. Exeter, 1957

Beryl Newman was born in St Albans and moved to the Devon village of Lustleigh in the 1930s. Her work was regularly shown in London galleries and she was a member of several art societies including the United Society of Artists.

Newman is largely known for her portraits. However, she also produced a wide variety of work including landscapes and religious studies. RAMM holds a more locally focused piece: a drawing of the wine cellars of Messrs Snow & Co, the Wine Merchants of Exeter. Here, Newman documents local industry through skilled draughtsmanship. Soft gradations of light reveal the cool, shadowed interior of the cellar.

Visual description: A detailed landscape pencil sketch of a wine cellar. Wooden posts and beams support a curved ceiling. Heavy shading provides a dark atmosphere, with a single hanging light illuminating brick walls and a cobbled floor. There is a clear path lined with crates that are stacked against the walls. Some crates have open sides and are filled with wine bottles, while others have closed sides and lids and what is inside is not visible. One of the boxes displays the text ‘SNOW, Wine Merch, Exeter’. Identical text appears on a solitary wine barrel resting on its side above a stool with a bucket positioned beneath its tap.