Albert Houthuesen

[1]: 19 Houthuesen left school aged 14 and went to work for a grocer, then as a lens fitter, apprentice engraver, tailor's stencil cutter, and furniture restorer.

[1]: 40-44  Though he loved watching Charlie Chaplin, he preferred theatre to film, particularly enjoying performances by the comedians George Robey and Little Tich.

[1]: 55-56 Thanks to William Rothenstein, principal of the Royal College of Art, Houthuesen was eventually able to obtain a scholarship to attend the RCA between 1924 and 1927,[1]: 56-71 [2] with contemporaries Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Edward Burra, Ceri Richards and Cecil Collins.

[1]: 248  He then gave evening art classes at the Mary Ward Settlement and the Working Men's College with colleagues Percy Horton and Barnett Freedman, under the directorship of James Laver.

[1]: 82, 105  Throughout the 1930s they visited Trelogan, near the Point of Ayr colliery in north east Wales, staying in Mersey Cottage,[6] owned by Catherine's aunts.

[1]: 131-133 The Houthuesens returned to London at the end of the war and lived in Lady Margaret Vicarage in Chatham Street, Southwark, where they acted as wardens for St Gabriel's College students accommodated there.

[1]: 137-39  Houthuesen was able to attend ballets at Covent Garden and the Adelphi Theatre, such as Los Caprichos (inspired by the Goya etchings),[9] Petrushka, The Three-Cornered Hat, and Les Sylphides.

[1]: 140-149 In autumn 1950, the Houthuesens moved again, to (then) semi-derelict Stone Hall with overgrown gardens, in Oxted, Surrey, and then again, in July 1952, to their final home at 5 Love Walk, in Denmark Hill, Camberwell.

[15] The title is a reference to the Dutch expression Loop naar de maan, Houthuesen's mother's response to requests for art supplies.