A Study for 'The Origins of the Land' (recto), 1950 (pencil, gouache, wax crayon on...

This is a preliminary study for a painting commissioned for the Festival of Britain of 1951. Sutherland later described the painting: ‘Broadly speaking the picture is divided as if in sections through the crust of the earth. You will notice the layers one on top of the other. It is as if you were looking at a cliff face.’ The small strip at the top shows the earth’s surface with the sun. Its relationship with the great mass of accumulated earth and fossils below contrasts the present and the past. Verso: Study of Christ's left Hand and Arm for a Crucifixion, c.1950;