Sutherland (Graham Vivian)

, , 1928.
Graham Sutherland (1903-1980) studied etching under Frederick Griggs, working in an accomplished style in the pastoral tradition of William Blake and Samuel Palmer. This formed the basis of his early commercial success in the 1920s, selling to both British and American buyers. This plate, from 1928, is a prime example, comprising an oblique view of a simple medieval chapel in the raking light of dawn or dusk, with sheep in the shadow of a low wall in the foreground, the sun’s rays emanating from the left and continuing through the perspective of the silent building until buffered by the laden fruit tree on the right. However, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 significantly disrupted the market, and cast a long shadow over the world. Sutherland’s subsequent style took on a darker, more brooding air, and echoes of the more surreal forms of De Chirico and Nash that paved the way for his later work,.